Big Brother: Up close and personal

Getting to know the housemates

Fans of Channel 4's Big Brother can now get their hands on Big Brother Uncut - the official video of this summer's television sensation. But is it worth the fuss? BBC News Online's Darryl Chamberlain thinks so.

Nichola Holt's single may have entered the UK charts at a dismal number 72, but she can still hold her bald head high this week.

Her pop career may have hit the buffers, but she emerges as the biggest star of Big Brother Uncut.

Rated an 18 certificate, half the footage on offer was not shown by Channel 4 during Big Brother's nine-week run.

Nichola is the true star of the video

But die-hard fans won't see too much to surprise them - although the sight and sound of Craig breaking wind might be too much for some.

Instead, it's a chance to relive in greater detail some of the show's most talked-about moments - and for viewers to remind themselves why they loved - or hated - some of the 11 participants.

Some moments are touching, others side-splitting, a couple revolting - the sight of Andrew's naked body drew gasps of horror from the audience at a London preview screening.

While Nasty Nick's eviction is dealt with in great depth at the end of the video, it's the much-less nasty Nichola who dominates much of the show.

Caroline dreams of Robbie Williams

Always ready with a comment, she tells Big Brother about her sexual habits away from the house, and has a surreal row with Darren when he accuses her of making noises while he's taking an afternoon nap - "if I want to sing a song at one o'clock in the afternoon then I will!"

She leads the women into demanding a body piercer be allowed into the house, bellowing: "We're all frustrated and there's no decent men here!"

Her cackling partner-in-crime Caroline also hogs the limelight.

"Who in the world would you have sex with if you could?" she demands of the fellow women in the house, before launching into a fantasy about Robbie Williams.

When Andrew strips off to be covered in clay, she compliments him on having a bottom "like a flower" while Thomas shakes his head in bemusement.

Anna announces she is gay, which becomes comic when Sada squeals: "Oh, that's wonderful!"

Sada adds later - but only in the girls' room: "For fear of being left out, I could be classed as bi-curious."

There's cameras out there: Nick's eviction is repeated in detail

The effect of watching the video is like listening to a series of - often unintentionally hilarious - drunken pub conversations.

Anna and Melanie flirt with Big Brother while Craig, Nick and Thomas sit in the garden, like old men putting the world to rights.

Apart from the clay-painting episode, the much-talked-of flashes of nudity are kept to a minimum and no-one is seen urinating in the shower - although both Caroline and Craig are caught at it in the garden.

After all those details, the video offers the chance to relive Nick's eviction from the beginning - and shows how Andrew, then Darren were the first to pick up on his scheming ways.

Dressed for success: Craig was the eventual victor

The moment Darren goes down Nick's bag to find those pieces of paper is still as powerful as it was that day in August when it seemed the whole country had stopped to focus on Nick's fate.

The housemates' ambush of Nick is included in full - expletives and all - right up to Craig ending it with a cheery: " Cup of tea, anyone?"

"It's only a gameshow, it's not the end of the world," Nichola says of the incident.

"It'll be a big thing for a few weeks, but then it'll blow over like everything else does."

The fate of her single shows Big Brother mania may be about to blow over. But for fans who can't wait for the likely second series, this will provide a souvenir of the summer when a great chunk of the UK went Big Brother crazy.

Big Brother Uncut: The Official Video, is available through Warner Vision.