Article: BIG BROTHER: THE SICK REALITY; For months, the Mail's TANYA GOLD infiltrated the exhaustive selection process for the new Big Brother series. The cynical and sinister psychological methods used to identify the most fragile and dysfunctional contestants will shock and appal you . .

AT A CONFERENCE centre in Birmingham I am queuing to audition for Big Brother 8. It is January and the Channel 4 reality TV show is casting its net throughout the land for housemates whose antics will appal and entertain us in equal measure during the summer.

The queue at the Thinktank centre is, predictably, a magnet for the dispossessed.

There are students wearing 'Wanted - naughty girls' T-shirts, people with multi-coloured hair, girls dressed as fairies. I stand next to someone who has auditioned six times. Why? She thinks that being on Big Brother will give her the love she never had. Oh dear.

Why am I here? Because behind the ...

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