Now Big Brother is phoning you

It might be nearly a fortnight since cheeky Scouser Craig walked away with &£70,000, but the dust has far from settled on Channel 4’s Big Brother. It seems the world’s going crazy for the real-life soap opera.

Big Brother fans in Sweden can receive real-time alerts of the latest developments on their mobile phones, courtesy of software company Categoric Software and mobile-phone company Telia. As if every friend, colleague, family member and media outlet talking non-stop about Big Brother wasn’t enough.

Meanwhile, not content to sit back and watch Southern Comfort soak up all the Big Brother sponsor- ship glory in the UK, Jim Beam Whiskey is launching its own Big Brother equivalent, inviting five men to spend a “bonding” weekend together in a motor home,whose results will be recorded by webcams.

The Diary prays that, like all new toys, webcams will soon fall out of favour. After all, what’s wrong with good old-fashioned curtain-twitching? At least it leaves more to the imagination.