[Hooly One]

By Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor, PA News


A criminologist working as a consultant on Big Brother has quit the Channel 4 show following the outbreak of violence in the house.

Professor David Wilson said his warnings that the re-introduction into the house of dippy duo Emma and Michelle from the bedsit would cause “conflict”.

The remaining housemates believed the pair had been evicted, but they were secretly watching and listening to all the goings-on.

Only hours after re-joining the group, a drunken brawl erupted and security men were forced to enter the house and intervene.

A police investigation is now underway and Professor Wilson told Channel 4 News that he could not be associated with the show.

“I was simply not prepared to lend my credibility to what was happening,” he said.

“It seemed to me to be an ethical decision to either stay or to go. When it was quite clear that some of the advice I had given in terms of how difficult it would be to re-introduce those two women without their being conflict, when I realised that advice hadn’t been listened to, it was at that point I thought I should go.”

Professor Wilson continued: “It seemed to me to be a great irony that all week people have been phoning me up asking me about football hooligans on the Algarve, and here I was lending my name to something whereby there was hooligan-esque behaviour happening for our entertainment.

“If hooliganism was wrong on the Algarve, it was wrong in the Big Brother house.”

Tonight’s Big Brother eviction has been cancelled following yesterday’s violence.

Bosses want to calm the atmosphere in the house and believe an eviction would unsettle the housemates even further.

Vanessa and Dan have not yet been told of the last-minute developments and still believe one of them will leave the house tonight.

The eviction has been postponed until next Friday, when the same two housemates will be put to the viewer vote.

A Big Brother spokeswoman said: “We want to let the housemates continue to work through their differences rather than be faced with an eviction.”

Producers plan to call Victor to the bedsit later today for a private meeting with Emma away from the other housemates.

The pair will be urged to settle their differences following the furious row in which they threatened to kill each other and had to be pulled apart.

If they agree, Emma will be allowed back into the house.

She spent a second night locked away in the bedsit as producers ignored her pleas to be let out.

Seven million viewers tuned in to watch the fracas on last night’s highlights show.

Only the launch show has attracted a bigger audience so far this series.

The extended programme attracted an average audience of 6.5 million and a peak audience of seven million.

The launch show drew a 6.7 million average and 7.2 million peak audience.

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