Big Brother: Rodrigo is early favourite!
Brazilian student Rodrigo Lopes is already the favourite to win Big Brother, according to the bookies. The 23-year-old - who became the first person to attain full housemate status after shaving off fellow housemate Noirin's eyebrows - has odds of 4-1 with Ladbrokes to take the �£100,000 prize. "Rodrigo is the only name on the lips of Big Brother punters," said Ladbrokes spokesman David Williams. "We're desperately hoping the other housemates up their game to make it interesting." Charlie, Sophia and Kris are also tipped to do well - although single mum Saffia is the rank outsider at 33-1. "Saffia is less popular than MPs claiming expenses right now," Williams added. "Not even her friends and family have come out to support her." The 16 entered the house on Thursday as 'non-housemates', discovering that they had to earn housemate status with a string of challenges. On Friday, Lisa and Kris became official housemates after Lisa was made a housemate by answering the Big Brother phone, and was told to choose one other to join her. Charlie and Saffia also earned official housemate status after passing a task on Friday which required them to walk over broken glass. The final line-up for the house will be determined on a live show on Sunday night.
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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.