This is Big Brother…

Tuesday 30th January 2007, 8:28AM GMT.

God loves a trier. And we at the Shropshire Star do try, writes our News Blogger, David Burrows. For example, features writer Ben Bentley tried to get into the auditions for Big Brother when the team came to Birmingham.

With all the fuss over the “celeb” version of the show (although if the standard of this year’s housmates was anything to go by – journalist, someone who’s going out with a footballer, a loud-mouthed bigot – many of the Shropshire Star staff would qualify) it was perfect timing.

Ben did, of course, fail. Not because he doesn’t have what it takes (although he can string a sentence together and doesn’t have any leftfield preferences when it comes to sexuality, religion, or anything else as far as I know), but because he had a notepad. And a camera.

Only columnists qualify for the BB House, it seems.

He did however, find a lot of other people from Shropshire who seemed only too willing to subject themselves to being stared at by spy cameras, having their every move scrutinised.

I can’t help thinking that if they fail, they could just go out around Shrewsbury on a Saturday night. Can’t see Dermot O’Leary presenting CCTV’s Little Brother, though.