By Hindustan Times
UK government-approved regulatory and competition authority Ofcom can be investigating Big Brother after it received 1,225 complaints about three instances of racist abuse within the house, majority of that have been in support of an Indian contestant within the show.
More than 1,000 people had voiced concerns to the regulator concerning the programme and its spin-off show Big Brother’s Bit At the Side.
One incident – wherein housemate Conor McIntyre launched a tirade of insults against Miss India UK title holder Deana Uppal – had prompted 1,108 complaints. Many viewers thought that it amounted to bullying.
McIntyre were warned about his behaviour by Big Brother, through which he had used a string of expletives and called her “a piece of s***.”
In another instance, which prompted 114 complaints, contestant Caroline Wharram had described a black housemate, Adam Kelly, as a “ridiculous gorilla” with “no sanitation” which some viewers saw as racist.
The house has again become a racial hotbed after a string of housemates made some regrettable comments.
And in an additional incident during an edition of giant Brother’s Bit At the Side, former BB housemate Victor Ebuwa used the word “functioning retard” to explain contestants, prompting three complaints.
Last year the large Brother was found to have breached the code after airing offensive language immediately following the 9pm watershed.
20-year-old Wharram was summoned to the Diary Room and told that her comments were unacceptable after Big Brother took a 0 tolerance attitude toward the remarks.
Big Brother then had warned Wharram that every one of her comments were both “unacceptable” and will be deemed “potentially offensive.”
“I really didn’t mean it in any respect. I just didn’t think. That was really horrible. I’m really sorry,” the Daily Mail quoted Wharram as saying.
She also told Adam: “It’s not an individual attack. I do really such as you. I just don’t react well and I’m really sorry. I genuinely like you.”
However, it was too late for the housemate as viewers had already taken to Twitter to slam the demeaning comments and a few even called for her to be expelled from the home after she compared the burly male to a gorilla.
Former Big Brother series seven contestant Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace weighed in at the argument and said: “CAROLINE DO NOT NEED USED THE WORD ‘GORILLA’ TO HAVE DESCRIBED EVERY OTHER HOUSEMATE, THEREFOR IT WAS A RACIST DESCRIPTIVE END OF #BBUK.”
Another user said: “So caroline called the black guy a gorilla.. Erm! And she’s not kicked out whyyy #bbuk.”
In 2007, Emily Parr have been kicked out of the home for using a racist word to a housemate and within the same year Jade Goody, Jo O’Meera and Danielle Lloyd were focused on a race row against Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty.
