Big Brother 2011: The housemates arrive!

Big Brother 2011: The housemates arrive!
Big Brother 2011: The housemates arrive!

Fourteen brand new housemates have entered the 2011 Big Brother house as the main series - following on from this year's Celebrity edition - got underway on Friday night. Among those taking part in the 2011 show - which is making its debut on Channel 5 - are a holistic healer, a female wrestler, a personal trainer, a record producer and a former winner of the Miss Manchester title. First to enter the house was 28-year-old Mark Henderson, a sales assistant from Berkshire, who was followed by 19-year-old Maisy James, a shop worker and aspiring TV presenter from Kent. They were followed by two of the older housemates - 30-year-old Aaron Allard-Morgan and model and holistic healer Heaven Africa, also aged 30. Tom O'Connell, a 20-year-old former psychology student from Solihull was next, followed by Tashie Jackson, a 21-year-old multi-lingual belly dancer from Oxford. And next in were 18-year-old student Aden Theobald - who claims to have an IQ of over 160 - McDonalds worker Alex Rose, 18, from Newcastle, and 22-year-old entrepreneur Harry Blake, who said he was hoping to bring 'a touch of class' to Big Brother. Club hostess Rebeckah Vaughn, 28, from Liverpool, followed them, as did 20-year-old Faye Palmer - a wrestler who competes under the professional name Darcy Steele - and 23-year-old record producer Anton Murphy from South London. Personal trainer Jay McKray, from Newcastle, and 25-year-old Louise Cliffe - a former winner of the Miss Manchester title - completed the line-up. There was also a surprise for the housemates once they had settled into their new surroundings - as celebrity guest Pamela Anderson joined them in the living area. The new arrivals shrieked as they greeted the Baywatch star - who had been watching them enter the house from a secret room - with a thrilled Mark telling her, "You're really fit in real life as well!" The first eviction of the series will take place next Friday night.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.