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Social experiment or TV gone mad? Channel 4's Big Brother is set to break new docu-soap ground

It was only a matter of time before TV producers hit upon the idea of combining a game show with a docu-drama format.

That time has now arrived with Big Brother, a controversial new warts-and-all programme, which will focus on the antics of a team of 10 contestants living inside a purpose-built, high security home.

The show is being billed as a "live social experiment" and will follow the five women and men as they battle it out for survival - and a £70,000 prize - throughout a nine-week period.

The contestants will have absolutely no privacy, so there is no escape from the cameras. The only ticket out of the camp is to be evicted by viewers following a weekly vote on the Friday show or to admit defeat and request to leave the show.

The house in Newham, London, certainly looks menacing. Rolls of razor wire cover the top of the 10-feet high steel fences, constantly monitored by CCTV cameras perched high over the compound. A narrow footbridge is the only way in - and guard dogs patrol that.

Despite this, there is no shortage of contestants and the 10 'lucky' finalists beat more than 40,000 other applicants to secure a berth in the Fort Knox-style camp.

The interactive proceedings are due to begin on July 14 - ironically Bastille Day - when the 10 participants will say goodbye to the outside world.

The group, who are complete strangers, have been carefully picked to withstand the stress of being watched all day, all night, for over two months. Even the bathroom and the bedrooms are on view - with infra red sights used at night.

As if that wasn't bad enough the individuals will also be fighting for survival - and have to win favour with the other inmates - and the viewing public - in order to survive the weekly vote.

"They are going to be under enormous pressure," says Oxford University research psychologist Peter Collett, who will be monitoring the volunteers' progress. "They are being locked up with people they have never met before.

"They will be isolated from the world and from their loved ones and from the routines that are part of their lives. Not only that, but they will know that millions of people will be tuning in to everything they do and say, both on television and on the Big Brother web site.

"Some may call them crazy, certainly they are unusual. But I guarantee that we will all become totally immersed in how they fare."

The house itself is like a communal shelter. The block contains one level of living space, opening on to a vegetable garden. Inside the open-plan design is painted in bright blues, oranges and purples - which may be cheery but considering the other pressures may prove enough to tip contestants over the edge.

Every wall has at least one, huge, two-way mirror, which hide the camera links between all the rooms. Every room has a microphone in place and each volunteer is fitted with a radio mike.

"They have got to make sure they don't get nominated for eviction,'' explains Peter Collett. "But they have also got to make sure that other people do get nominated. There will be all kinds of Machiavellian politics going on. Manoeuvring for advantage is an important part of the experiment."

The nerve centre of the project is the Big Brother studio, built for the series and housing banks of monitors, which will receive sound and pictures from 30 microphones and 25 cameras.

Each Friday Davina McCall will host the show which will decide who is to be cast out from the house.

"This is going to keep me on my toes," she says. "We have got no idea what is going to happen, I've got to be prepared for anything. I love people watching and what a great opportunity to watch so closely. We will be able to track relationships, bad and good, and see them evolve in an extraordinary environment."

Romance is always on the cards, but there will have to be some negotiation about privacy arrangements. Unlike the Holland version, Britain's Big Brother has decided that the men and women will have to be split between two bedrooms each containing five, metal single beds.

"They can choose to split the space between the sexes," says Liz Warner.

"It will be up to them. If they want to share the sleeping arrangements differently then they will have to get agreement from the others."

Each day Channel 4 will be screening highlights of the previous 24-hour goings on, as well as in-depth coverage on the web site and a 66 square metre screen in London's Leicester Square showing hourly updates.

Although the warts-and-all approach of filming has already seen eyebrows raised in certain quarters, the producers have been quick to point out that the broadcasts will have a 10-second time delay so they can be scanned for unsuitable scenes.

Once inside their new `home', the participants be given various tasks during their 64-day incarceration. If they complete them successfully then they can choose to add to their creature comforts. Otherwise they will have to make do with staple fodder like pasta, rice, flour and a little meat and fish.

If it all proves too much, volunteers can ask for private in-house counselling and they are able to confess their innermost thoughts to an individual camera in the diary room. Ultimately, if they just can't cope, they can ask to leave.

But whoever manages to stay longest not only gets wads of cash, but instant notoriety. The Dutch winner is now a national celebrity, while the German version made a media star out of its sole survivor, who now has his own show and a chauffeur-driven Mercedes.

"Rejection is one of the tough things they will have to deal with if they get evicted," says Peter Collett. "But each one of them will have had a fantastic opportunity to really get to know themselves.

"We assume that this kind of incarceration can only have negative

consequences, that people will come out worse - even deranged. But it can be life-enhancing, people can have their lives enormously enriched by this experience."

Big Brother is on every day on Channel 4 from July 17.

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