BB8's Billi offers to return to house for free
Former Big Brother housemate Billi Bhatti has offered to return to the Big Brother house at the end of this series - for free. The model - who appeared on the series in 2007 - has told producers he is willing to waive the £10,000 fee being offered to former housemates to return for the Ultimate Big Brother contest. The special two-week series, which begins on August 24, will see past contestants from both the regular and Celebrity shows return to the house to compete for the title of Ultimate Housemate. "Producers want BB to go out with a bang," an insider told The Sun. "The special series will last just over a fortnight - and so many past housemates are so keen that some have offered their services for free!" Former series champions Nadia Almada and Craig Phillips are among those tipped to take part, as well as some of the more notorious housemates including Nikki Grahame and Nick Bateman. Billi joined the Big Brother house during the 2007 series of the show as one of the later housemates. However his time in the house was short-lived and he was evicted in the fifth week of the show.
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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.