Big Brother 2 (UK)

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Big Brother 2 was broadcast in 2001 in the United Kingdom as part of the Big Brother reality television series. It aired on Channel 4, from 25 May 2001 to 27 July 2001, lasting 64 days. The second series of the show in which a number of contestants live in an isolated house trying to avoid being evicted by the public with the aim of winning a large cash prize at the end of the run. With a much larger budget for the second series, after the huge success of the first, the house in Bow, East London was renovated and in May 2001, the new batch of housemates moved in.

In a twist to the show, an 11th housemate entered the house two weeks later (Day 16) - as the result of a public vote, in which Josh Rafter was chosen out of 3 wildcard housemates as the 11th contestant. During the first week, at the end of each episode, clips were shown of all three possible housemates:

• Josh, who claimed "to have made a million and then lost it";
• Anne, an older woman who promised sense and maturity in the house, and a "late night talker";
• Natasha, a fiery young girl who promised "naughtiness" and other late-night antics

The trio were not allowed to watch the show or find out what was happening in the house until the winner of the vote entered so they were taken to Portugal up to that point.

The series saw lovebirds Paul Clarke and Helen Adams grow close over the time they spent in the house. Their relationship helped bring in ratings, as tabloids speculated on the possibility of their indulging in sexual shenanigans in a manner similar to that seen in the show's continental equivalent.

Paul and Helen's romance wasn't the only ratings winner, the quick wit of Irish housemate Brian Dowling became an instant hit with viewers. Brian went on to win the series, and launch a successful television career. The public's continued affection for him was illustrated by his being voted the most popular Big Brother housemate from Series 1 to 5 in 2005. In a 2006 update to this poll he had, however, fallen to fourth.

Helen finished second in the show, her popularity was predominantly due to her dumb blonde persona. Famous quotes from Helen, known as 'Helenisms', have included "Is there Chicken in Chick Peas?" and "I like blinking, I do." Helen and Paul, after 5 years together, have since separated, citing a lack of time apart as the reason for the breakup.[1] Brian went on to become the first openly gay man to present a children's television show in the UK when he joined SMTV Live.

Series two tasks included:

• Manning, fuelling, and keeping alight a fire
• Learning first-aid techniques
• Training a dog to do tricks
• Dancing - it consisted of music being played, and housemates having a set amount of time to rush to a specially-constructed podium in the garden and dance with music. This was seen as popular and appropriate, and many tasks in future series have involved timed klaxons to perform certain rituals. A famous moment that inadvertently resulted from this time pressure occurred as Bubble raced to the podium, only to smash his knee into a chair as he did so.

Series two was also the first series to involve an interactive service, showing two live feeds, and two more with respective one and four hour time delays. This was not a 24-hour service, and the feed was stopped for a two-hour period every night, during which the show and another three programs aired. Endemol were also criticised for cutting the live feed when two intruders broke into the house on Day 39, and subsequently promised to tighten security.

Brian's winning margin was the highest ever garnered by a U.K winning contestant.

Total number of votes in the final week: 7.3 million

[edit] Nominations, evictions and percentages

Main article: Big Brother (UK series 2) nominations table

	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8	Week 9
Against Public Vote	Helen Penny	Paul Stuart	Narinder Paul	Bubble Paul	Amma Paul	Helen Josh	Helen Paul	Brian Dean Elizabeth Helen
Evicted and Vote Percentage	Penny 58% to evict	Stuart 86% to evict	Narinder 62% to evict	Bubble 53% to evict	Amma 64% to evict	Josh 84% to evict	Paul 84% to evict	Elizabeth 2% (out of 4)	Dean 5% (out of 3)
								Helen 39% (out of 2)	Brian 61% to win

[edit] External links

• Big Brother - Series 2 at channel4.com

Big Brother UK
Big Brother	1 (2000) | 2 (2001) | 3 (2002) | 4 (2003) | 5 (2004) | 6 (2005) | 7 (2006)
Celebrity Big Brother	2001 | 2002 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007
Teen Big Brother	2003