#cbb jameshill

As James Hill won Celebrity Big Brother, social media was full of ‘he’s not famous enough’ outrage. But wouldn’t we rather have a kind, genuine unknown as the winner than a nasty, loud A-lister?

Man tub, anyone? (Picture credit: Channel 5)

Serious dress envy here (Picture credit: Channel 5)

Firstly, a caveat. As a 30-something red wine loving woman from Liverpool, my final night loyalty could only lie with one ginge and I was gutted when brave, fun, wise, she-could-be-my-mate Natasha was voted out.

But once she was announced as third, the public’s decision to make James the winner was absolutely the right one. Emma Willis was right about Austin: it was gripping viewing seeing such a fallible human with all his nuances but it didn’t feel quite right for him to be number one.

James on the other hand did feel right, even amidst a sea of social media whining about his level of fame - and this is why.

A lot of the 20-something blokes who have previously gone into Big Brother have offended me a lot. They’ve wheeled out sexist ‘jokes’ about the women, their banter-level’s pure Beavis and Butthead and often they are angrier than Farrah Abraham holding a glass on a spin-off show. It’s the more mature ones that come off better, usually, but then you have James Hill.

Yes, he’s only marginally more famous than my local butcher, but in any other profession does that rule you out of getting awards? Or does it just mean that if you bag them precociously you’re doing pretty well at whatever it is that you do?

Is she sort of using Sherrie as a lean-post? Awkward (Picture credit: Channel 5)

James Hill is good at being famous. We have a celebrity culture of Chloe Jasmine posing and rehearsed soundbite interviews, and he’s genuine. We have a celebrity culture of laddishness and aggression - he is rumoured to have replaced Dan Osborne, I shall leave that there - and James is a gentleman. We have a celebrity culture where intellect isn’t something which is particularly encouraged and James is smart.

Virtually dancing out of the doors (Picture credit: Channel 5)

Sherrie, wriggling her shoulders for all of womankind (Picture credit: Channel 5)

He spoke more sense than anyone who’s ever been on the show before, and he stood his ground in difficult moments - the Austin nomination was so awkward, it made Jarrah re-entering the house look like a cute family Christmas. 

He didn’t churn out unmeaning platitudes on cue to Austin about their friendship, he said he liked him, he thought a lot of him, but that they had only known each other for three weeks and that wasn’t very long. I reserve an especially exaggerated eye roll at housemates who scream I LOVE YOU at every audience member who yells into the house and announce second mothers after two gins in a can and I loved James for his honesty. Of course you can’t know each other in three weeks, listen to the voice of sanity, people.

It feels very, very wrong looking at him in this many clothes. Almost... grubby (Picture credit: Channel 5)

Even those who thought James had tactics can’t genuinely believe his rationality and calm was a game plan; no-one could keep that up for four weeks, especially when you’re living in a house with the human equivalent of clickbait. How could anyone not rise to Farrah, when she went for him so personally with her comments about his relationship with Austin?

James is famous for being a businessman who tried to get Alan Sugar’s attention on The Apprentice and that, for some reason, makes people angry. Is being a former Apprentice contestant worse than being a professional boyfriend-of-someone-famous? Than making a name of yourself for being mean on Twitter? Or is it actually quite an admirable route? James is a celebrity who very definitely has a real job.