[James]

Penny
Eccentric, insecure and over-fussing – a real character though. I’m not sure if she was necessarily a good candidate for going into the house. Maybe evicted for her own good.

Stuart
I always thought his faults were blown out of proportion by the necessity to create a ‘Nasty Nick’ style villain. Also, he’s a rich and successful businessman and the public love to knock someone like that down a peg or two. Generally a nice guy. A bit of a poser, but that, in itself, is quite funny.

Narinder
Her bitching was very entertaining. She probably doesn’t do herself any favours though. That’s a pity I think. Her eviction interview, where she let rip at the others was very funny.

Bubble
Looking back at it now, he was probably my least favourite housemate. There’s no doubt that he is a genuine, good-hearted person who would be good to have as a friend and would probably make you laugh a lot if you knew him. But on television, his clowning never really amused me – and for that reason came across as someone who thought he was funnier that he actually was. Though I quite liked the clip where he pretended to be the rag doll and scared Narinder, that was about it. I was glad that Paul stayed in the eviction vote with Bubble, though I was kicking myself because I could have backed Bubble, earlier in the week, to be evicted at odds of 10-1, and didn’t!

Amma
I didn’t think she did a lot on the show. Just blended into the background really. Some people thought she was grouchy but I think maybe she didn’t settle into the environment with so many big personalities around her.

Josh
By his own admission, he was holding himself back, not letting his full personality show. Was always shown buried in a book and therefore thought as boring. But if too many people are competing for attention then the show can become too noisy and consequently unwatchable. He was at a disadvantage coming in late as well. I liked him best during his eviction interview when his opinions about the other housemates were honest and forthright. I think that afterwards he couldn’t be so candid, especially about Brian, because Josh found out how popular Brian was with the public.

Paul
His relationship with Helen was what made Big Brother 2 a unique television event for me. Totally compulsive viewing in weeks 7 and 8. I always thought that Paul was being genuine and the fact that many of the postings on the message boards at the time were quite venomous made me more sympathetic to him. I couldn’t really fault the way he acted with Helen, knowing what he knew at the time.
Also, Paul could be very funny in a not intending to be kind of way e.g. the sleep-talking, the international popstar remark. I guess that’s something like Tim’s comprende comment, but I’d say whatever is funny is funny – it doesn’t matter how.

Elizabeth
I thought she was all right, although I know that many disagree. She found out while she was in there that the Big Brother house and series didn’t suit her personality. Most of the people in there were just not people she would normally spend time with in the real world, though I don’t think she should receive a slating because of this. The fact that she was different to the others added to the broader scope of characters the show had - compared to BB3. She could be slightly two-faced, especially to Helen, maybe for the sake of the game, possibly because Elizabeth didn’t want to hurt her feelings.
Elizabeth got me annoyed during the infamous argument in bedroom and also the week earlier when, by the hot tub, she told Brian and Dean what she thought Paul had told her. That set Brian really against Paul at that point, but even that could have been the result of a misunderstanding.
Mind you, I thought Elizabeth’s bizarre ‘Why can’t you be normal!’ tirade with Dean in the orange blankets and sunglasses in the middle of the night was really funny.

Dean
My opinion of Dean was that he was very easy going and was interesting to listen in conversation. He also possessed a keen sense of humour – very wry. Dean proves that you don’t need to clown around or be over-the-top to be funny in Big Brother. I also liked his music.

Helen
She was radiant, hilariously funny and entertaining and so, so endearing. She was also completely herself and genuine. When she got together with Paul she sparkled even more. She is unique. I wanted Helen to win in the final.

Brian
The other outstanding aspect of Big Brother 2, apart from the romance, was the comedy and Brian provided laughs in spades. His comedy was sharp, witty and surreal. Brian played no small part in my belief that BB2 was one of the funniest television series ever.


I’d say that I liked them all in some way and they all contributed to a great show. I like all the BB2 housemates as much as I was indifferent to the occupants of the BB3 house.