[Captain.Remy]

The CBB5 race row will not result in CBB6 being sanitised

Channel 4 have announced that the forthcoming series of Celebrity Big Brother ‘will not be sanitised’, following the race row which surrounded the last series.

The programme will return this Friday after a break was taken last year. The last series in 2007 was highly controversial after Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty became a victim of a race row involving Jade Goody. The fallout from the row prompted over 40,000 complaints to Channel 4.

Channel 4 commisioning editor, David Williams, said: “There’s never been a case of sanitising Big Brother.”

However, there are plans in place to prevent a repeat of a similar scandal according to Williams: “We’ve got procedures in place so we can cope with any eventuality.”

Phil Edgar Jones, creative director at the Endemol-owned company Brighter Pictures, added: “If things are getting out of hand, we’ll deal with them. We have so many checks and balances we’ve imposed upon ourselves.”

Spin-off show Big Brother’s Big Mouth will not be fronted by controversial comedian Russell Brand like in 2007. His replacement, Jack Whitehall, is looking forward to presenting the E4 show: “Russell Brand was very good at doing it. But I want to make it my own, so hopefully I can do that - and there will be no prank calls.”

Celebrities rumoured to enter the house on Friday are Verne Troyer, Michelle Heaton, Lucy Pinder and LaToya Jackson, among others.

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