Since Chanelle left the house a few weeks ago, something has been missing, although I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. It can’t be the incessant moaning, the bitching in the diary room, the unpredictable mood swings or even the pouting sulk. It’s not even the on-off drama of her and Ziggy’s relationship. Hell knows, all of the above boxes are now ticked by Carole. However, there’s definitely something, and Big Brother has noticed it to.
Last week, under the pretence of a shopping task, housemates were given extensive training on “How to be Posh.”
The task didn’t sit well with some housemates from the offset. Tracey was particularly upset by the whole thing. As soon as the music on the task’s instructional VT started playing, a quaint classical piece designed to back the visual sight of what may or may not have been Ziggy’s mother offering etiquette advice, Tracey exclaimed, “This music is so monotonous man.” This was not all she had to say, however. Later, when Big Brother piped in some light jazz number to practice dancing to, she complained, “How are people supposed to dance to this?” This from the woman who spends her time outside the house listening to techno music.
The idea of speaking Standard English using Received Pronunciation also upset Tracey, clearly clashing with her raver ideals. To put shackles on her language was tantamount to putting shackles on her thoughts, her very essence of being. The whole thing was an prognostic of Britain’s growing class war, a war she, as a free spirit, would not enter into. We also can’t ignore the fact that generic 80’s catchphrases just don’t have the same ring to them when fully enunciated, and Tracey was damned if she was going to start forming proper sentences containing genuine thoughts, meanings or content.
Davina touched on this issue in Tracey’s interview after her eviction on Friday. Clearly Davina had been watching Tracey throughout the series with a great deal of interest and intrigue, and had been very much looking forward to her interview so that she could really probe Tracey, understand what really made her tick and the like.
“Now forgive me if I’m wrong Tracey, but I’ve been watching you a lot, and I’m just wondering why you keep coming back to these catchphrases of yours. Now we did all love them and enjoy them, but a part of me wonders why you used them so often? I may be wrong, but is your constant retreat to these some sort of defence mechanism? Maybe you don’t want to let people in, let people see the real you? Maybe you were abused as a child, I don’t know.
I’m just speculating here, but it seems that deep down you’re really insecure, and these phrases are part of an elaborately constructed shield you hold up to prevent any possible chance of rejection of your true self, of the true Tracey? I mean, sorry if that seems… but, does that in any way make sense.”
“Yeah man, Gravy”
No tears, no confessions, no hint at an upcoming period of intensive soul searching. Nothing. Poor Davina, such a question was wasted on Tracey. At least she got the tone right with Kara Louise, the other evictee. The interview basically consisted of a simple shrug aimed in Kara Louise’s general direction, a gesture correctly gauging the level of interest the public had in Kara-Louise’s post experience analysis.
Despite the loss of the literal beacon of Big Brother’s multi-cultural ethos (“New, to the acceptance range, Kara Louise! One person, two skin tones!”), as well as the failed attempt at finding the female Pete “BB7” Bennet, the house is still very much crowded at this late stage of the game.
There are seven people left, surely too many to leave until the final night? I suggest a truly random eviction. Big Brother should ask one housemate to come to the diary room, with whoever answering the call being unceremoniously shown out of the back door. Actually, this would have been good throughout the show. It would be a type of natural selection, wheedling out the biggest attention seekers and screen time seekers.
Either that, or Liam et al should continue Thursday night’s theme of haggling with Big Brother.
“We’ll make you a deal. A takeaway pizza in exchange for…hmmm… Carole.”
Please.