Big Brother 2008 (UK) - House

House

As with all Big Brother series since Big Brother 2002, the House was located in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, just north of London, and was completely rebuilt with a new look for the 2008 series. The first images of the House were released in late May and showed the kitchen, living area, bathroom, one of the two bedrooms, and parts of the garden. The initial set of pictures revealed a lavish, Romanesque bathroom and a red kitchen fitted with triangular furniture and wall slats facing inwards, The bedroom shown (which the housemates nicknamed "B-Block") contains only eight beds surrounded by lockers and the garden was enlarged with vibrant colours and an ashtray in which housemates may smoke. The dining table had only eight seats when first shown to the public; it was later shown during the launch that there was a second adjoining table. On 4 June 2008, only one day before the launch of the series, Channel 4 released images of the luxury bedroom and for the first time before the launch show in the programme's history, the Diary Room. The luxury bedroom was accessed via the garden and contains eight double beds with an oval wardrobe built into the back. The Diary Room was in between the two sets of stairs by which housemates entered and exited the House (they join together at the top). This meant that the housemates had to exit the House through the main doorway to enter the Diary Room; however, the Diary Room button that the housemates used to notify Big Brother of their intent to go to the Diary Room was located next to the main door inside the House. Outside the bathroom were tokens, which housemates bought from the shopping list and gave to Big Brother if they wanted to use hot water or get rewards. The tokens were not returned afterwards. When the house was split into Heaven and Hell, the garden had to be modified, with a new outside bathroom in "hell" and the seating area in heaven was located as the smoking area. Other areas in the House included, for the first time, a jail for housemates who break the rules. Located in a wall of the garden, the jail had a door which locked automatically when housemates entered and was exposed to the elements but did have bars so that housemates could not escape. On launch night, Davina McCall revealed that there is also a solitary confinement space in the House; it is accessed via the Diary Room. It was used as a "task room" for various tasks. In addition, a Nominations Pod was placed outside the luxury bedroom. Once housemates entered the pod, they were free to discuss nominations; however, upon exiting the pod, the regular rules regarding nominations applied. Early in the morning of Day 32 (6 July 2008), the Big Brother house was evacuated because of a bomb scare. All housemates were removed for their own safety while Hertfordshire Police carried out a thorough search of the premises at around 1:15am. The scare was eventually declared a hoax and the housemates returned and the show resumed. The live feed was cut during the evacuation and search and didn't resume until 4:00am. The House has been used after the series for the shooting of graphics for the home page of the Big Brother horror spin off Dead Set.