[Jarrod]

I interviewed Benedict, and here are his replies! Enjoy. Quite a interesting read..

1. Out of 10, how would you rate your time in the House?

I am so grateful to have done the experience. However, much of the time in the house is incredibly boring, waiting hours on end for something to happen or for challenges to be set up. As a result, many of the housemates have nothing better to do than talk about each other or play silly games with each other. In terms of the group of people I was lumbered with, many of them were beginning to grate on me. Some of the them did not understand me, found me too intense or boring and unappreciative of my brand of humour. I found them immature, self-centred and spoilt. They became very difficult to live with, so am grateful to be away from people of that ilk.

2. Have you seen any other previous series of Big Brother or Celebrity Big Brother? And did that make you apply to be on this series?

On and off, yes. I watched the very first few series almost religiously. During the last 5-6 years my interest has waned. I didn’t watch any of last year’s and only dipped into the odd one or two of the Celeb version.
You are making the assumption that I applied for Big Brother. I didn’t. I have never applied for Big Brother or any other reality TV show. They contacted me in the first instance.

3. Have your views on the Housemates changed since watching the show?
No. The ones I liked I still like. The ones I thought of as spoilt, rude and, on the whole, vile, have proven themselves to be just that even more.

4. This year, for a short time you were allowed to talk about and discuss your Nominations. Did that change the dynamics of the House?
Totally. It was all some of them talked about. Even my good friend, Lydia. It split the house into two camps. It became a far more strategic game rather than people voting for their own reasons, they began to vote on what made mathematical sense. I hated that rule and wish it had not been that way from the start.

5. You walked out of the House with a Chair, and gave us a very entertaining eviction. Do you think it was fair on the rest of the Housemates that they were punished for that?
Big Brother is not about fairness. Housemates constantly whinged about things “not being fair” in the house. I would constantly remind them “You came on a TV show called ‘Big Brother’. Your life is being controlled. This is not fair.” Why many of those housemates even agreed to go into that house I have no idea. Well, actually I do: because they are fame-hunting, attention-seeking, self-obsessed deludes who see it as a launchpad into stardom. Big Brother has been far too nice to those unappreciative and spolit brats, I only wish the punishment could have been far more severe than the theft of their seating. They seemed to enjoy that punishment far too much. I, for one, think the carpet is the best seat anyway.

6. Who is your least favourite Housemate?
That would be a toss up (excuse the pun) between Caroline and Ashleigh. While both girls can, occasionally, have lovely sides to themselves, they both display some despicable aspects to their personalities. Caroline takes great pleasure in victimising and bullying certain individuals she takes a dislike to, as well as constantly criticising her parents, not to mention her complete sense of bone-idleness. Equally lazy, Ashleigh is a shame to my Mother’s county of Essex (which she has a constant habit of reminding us she is from), continuing to give it a bad name through her persistent (almost every other word) use of *******s and ********s, her lack of knowledge about… well, anything really, and her total inability to be pleasant to. and take total advantage of, one of the nicest people in the house: Lauren. Oh, and that ‘showmance’ with Luke S, what an absolute crock of a relationship!

7. Were you shocked by Conor’s outburst the other night?

Not really. To be honest, I don’t know much about Conor. I tried to get to know him, but I am hardly any the wiser than when I went into the house. He has a rather childish and repetitive sense of humour (mostly stolen from a TV show called ‘Facejacker’) that he shares (unsurprisingly) with Ashleigh and also has a pretty foul mouth. So his latest tirade against Deana is hardly a surprise to me.

8. What would you have done if you were in the house and witnessed Conor’s outburst about Deana?


If I had been there to witness it, I would certainly have told him he had gone way too far. Housemates were often called into the Diary Room for over-stepping the mark and receiving warnings for their language. Maybe it is because of my teacher training, but I never received any warnings and am very sensitive about the use of language and the intent or implication it can portray. I tried to stand in when I could when I ever felt someone had become bullyish in that house. I would like to have thought that I would have certainly confronted Conor about it.

9. Which Housemate do the viewers have the most misconceptions about?
I think they certainly had the most misconceptions about Lydia. I mean, what did she really do that was that bad, particularly when I compare her to the likes of Caroline, Ashleigh and Conor? All she did was to scheme a little here and there. It’s a game show, folks! Also, you never got to see the fun side of Lydia that I was able to enjoy. Many-a-time she and I would prance around singing songs from ‘Cats’ the musical and having a jolly good frolic!

And finally, Do you wish you were still in there?
Yes and no. Of course, I could do with £100k and I would like to participate in more of the challenges. I also miss Luke A, Adam and Lauren an awful lot and hope to see them again. In no way do I miss Caroline, Ashleigh, Sara, Conor or Scott and am very happy to be away from that level of immaturity and brain-numbness. It really was like living in a creche or being on a school trip. Although, on all the school trips I went on, the kids were far more sensible

http://bigbrother247.co.uk/day-26-ex...with-benedict/

[Ramsay]

he didnt apply wow

[Rawrbear]

As if he did not apply...It makes you think which over housemates did not apply over the years.

[King Gizzard]

A large majority of them are fast tracked through to the last stage it's so obvious

Agents

[armand.kay]

[Me. I Am Salman]

Outrageous.

[G1dds]

Yeah he was deliberating for quite awhile about whether to go on the show. They contacted him directly

[MTVN]

Guess they just heard his story and thought he'd make an interesting housemate, they were right I suppose

[Ramsay]

i will be expecting a call from them next year so

[King Gizzard]

Just further ruins the concept of big brother, soon there won't be normal BB or CBB..just 15 people who've had controversial new stories in the past year

[armand.kay]

I think it would be only him and Sara who did not audition the other I think did.

[Razor]

Benedict was a good housemate, it was such a shame he got evicted so early on.

[hideki]

Great interview, he didn't hold back at all. Speaks truth.

[Brother Leon]

Thought that was the case. When I saw him on This Morning or whatever it is called I thought he would be on CBB lol

[Jords]

Agents

Good interview, agree with the most of it!

[Indy]

It makes me sad. I started watching the UK series because the US one was getting more and more packed with pretty people from central casting who never applied on their own. Now it seems the UK series is following suit. While I liked Benedict well enough, I find it hard to believe they had to resort to outside casting and couldn't scrape up 2 more likely candidates from all their auditions.

[armand.kay]

Originally Posted by Indy

It makes me sad. I started watching the UK series because the US one was getting more and more packed with pretty people from central casting who never applied on their own. Now it seems the UK series is following suit. While I liked Benedict well enough, I find it hard to believe they had to resort to outside casting and couldn't scrape up 2 more likely candidates from all their auditions.

I think its because the only people who audition for BB now a days are all the same young and fame hungry so the only way for them to have a more diverse cast is to resort to start asking people if they want to be housemates.

[WozMan]

Gotta get me one of them stripping jobs

[alex_front2]

Originally Posted by armand.kay

I think its because the only people who audition for BB now a days are all the same young and fame hungry so the only way for them to have a more diverse cast is to resort to start asking people if they want to be housemates.

Yes it does seem to be same pool of young and fame hungry
types (Shocked Siobhan revealled Luke S has an acting background).
However, there is a way to naturally increase diversity of HMs. Increase prize money
to about £250,000. £100K for some is not enough of an enticement to apply to BB nd potentially ruin repuation. Make it Quarter of a million and you'll get loads more older HMs and intelligent Benedict types actually rocking up to audition. You will get doctors and lawyers, retired people looking to top up modest pension, folk hit by scandal etc.

[billy123]

He clarified on his twitter that by that he meant he was asked to apply but he still had to go through the audition process from the start just like everybody else did.

[Anthony Hatface]

This happens all the time. I was asked by ITV, through my modelling portfolio, if I wanted to audition for "Take Me Out". That would have been pointless, as I am already spoken for (and the lovely Claire is worth more to me than half an hour of TV exposure, not to mention wonderfully tolerant of my BB obsession ...). At any rate, it was just a preliminary approach, and not fast-tracking. By the sound of things, Benedict had to go through the same stages as everyone else. I had about 4 stages to endure, and I was neither cherry-picked nor fast-tracked for BB. I pushed myself entirely on them ...

Very interesting interview, BTW. It confirms my esteem of the man in question, as well as the opinions I was forming of the HMs. A real shame he is no longer in there to balance out the prevailing childishness, blissful ignorance, and inarticulacy, but at least his influence lives on in his remaining friends (who I can only hope don't get shot down too soon).

[Smithy]

As if anyone thought he auditioned

[MatthewS]

Classy Benedict, still talking sh*t about the housemates he didn't get along with, every chance he gets. He must be sooooooooo sophisticated and mature. He also contradicted himself a bunch.

[Vodka Drinka]

Headhunting housemates is nothing new. It's been going on since at least BB6 when they "invited" Derek to audition. For example Dave from BB11 was approached after the producers read an article about his "Sloshfests" in The Sun.

[Cherie]

Great interview, Benedict has his fellow ex HMs nailed. Send him back in.