The Ten Key Moments of Big Brother 9

Every series has its highs and lows, and a few moments that will be remembered long after the show has finished.

Often these scenes - Mario proposing to Lisa, Mikey being hit by a ball, Luke and Bex kissing  - may have been sad or funny, they didn't actually make all that much of a difference as to the final result.

So here are my ten key moments made both by housemates, and by the producers, that may not have been all that memorable, but which I think made the difference.

1. The wedding task. Not the event itself but the result. Did they pass? Did they fail? BB decided they failed, and so Steph was gone. But supposing they’d passed, Alex would have been evicted that week, and Steph might have gone and won. I mean, if Rachel can win, why couldn’t Steph?

2. Picturegate. BB and Davina may have pretended that this didn’t happen, but Dennis got kicked out, Sylvia left the same night, and the Whisper Club were in ruins. One by one Jen, Bex, Luke, Dale, and Stuart got culled, largely because of it. Likewise, Rex, Mo, and Darnell all survived so long because of it.

3. Davina’s silent eviction announcements. I think they stopped doing this in BB5, thinking it would be more fun for the Housemates to know how we felt about them. Big mistake! It ruined the game, providing a five minute thrill that clearly influenced the house. Grace should never have known she was unpopular. Maxwell should never have known he was popular. Now we’re back to how it was.

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4. The showing of the Rachel and Dale’s videotapes. It had been a long-running theme of Rex’s that Rachel was putting on an act. When he, Stuart, Mikey and Darnell were shown her launch night vt, this gave him all the excuse he needed to persecute her. Rachel fought back, calmly, sweetly, ad suddenly she got herself noticed. But while this was the making of Rachel, it was the downfall of Dale. It also gave Mikey a solid reason to nominate him.

5. Mikey’s nomination of Rex and Dale. Mikey was floating around under the radar. He was the bitchy blind guy with the disgusting eating habits. Then suddenly, he delivers a hilarious rant, neatly demolishing both their characters, and hey presto, Mikey is in the game.

WARNING: contains strong language.

6. Maysoon leaving. If Maysoon hadn't left, would Nicole have been allowed in? Rex’s arrogance had already sowed the seeds of his own downfall, but the scowling girlfriend who wanted to confront him about Las Vegas but couldn’t because of the rules became a three week nightmare. It was only after she had gone that he got his mojo back. I don’t think Rex could ever have won, but Nicole was the final dagger.

7. Dale wants to leave. Inspired by Rex’s devil-may-care persona and thinking this was making Rex popular with the public, Dale suddenly decided to copy it. Until Dale played this card, he had never even been nominated. You could say the same about Stuart, who also wanted to go. But he meant it. It’s not quite so clear with Dale.

8. Darnell calling Sara an “ugly bitch”. Not only did this torpedo his popularity, having been the favourite for almost a month, it also elevated Sara from also ran to front runner. The way she stood up to he, Rex, and Mo after a relentless three day barrage of sarcasm, sexist jokes, and general unpleasantness was the making of Sara.

9. No tampering with nominations. Well there was one, when BB clumsily tried to save Luke from the chop. Thankfully it failed. But imagine if it had succeeded: Luke survives, and we’ve got a repeat of the Charley Show from last year. BB keeps a housemate, not because we like him, but because they like him. We know it, the housemates know it, and the competitiveness dies.

10. Consistent punishments. Well, they weren't that consistent ( see Luke above ) but compared to previous years the HMs tended to be treated equally for discussing nominations. Instead of putting everybody up except the rule-breaker ( Jayne BB7 ), cancelling the whole nomination process ( Vanessa BB6 ), or showing the HMs the infringement ( Derek, Roberto, Craig BB6 ) we had a relatively consistent policy of sending them to jail.

Mind you, we never did get to see the padded cell in use, did we? It's three minutes ten seconds in or so, by the way. Yes, they really did plan to use it. I wonder why they changed their mind.

WARNING: Contains strong language.