Big Brother cop is a flop in my book

Big Brother was never renowned for the high quality of contestants that shared sofa space in the house, but they’ve just scraped the bottom of the barrel so hard they’ve come out the other side.

Now, I know there are legions queueing up for 15 minutes of fame these days whether by appearing on a reality show, taking their clothes off or being a rebel without a cause but the latest fame-seeking wannabe plumbs new depths.

A detective in the Jimmy Savile case has resigned, and can now be seen on TV every night as one of the collection of fruit loops and show offs on the Channel 5 show.

They’re going to have to invent a new letter to stick on the end of the alphabet if he thinks he’ll become a “star” through this, because “Z list” just doesn’t do it justice.

Former Detective Constable Dan Neal had until recently been part of Operation Yewtree. He has thrown away his proper job in order to squat on a TV show that in the past has demanded candidates wear Lycra body suits and get electric shocks. They have been encouraged to change their names by deed poll, shave off their eyebrows and eat worms.

Now, if people want to utterly humiliate themselves on national TV we can’t stop them. In fact producers are inundated with cannon fodder eager to strip off, mouth off and get totally off their heads on the booze that is liberally supplied to make sure

everyone misbehaves as much as possible.

Look at the number of famous faces who have lined up to take part in the celebrity version of the show.

George Galloway (below) thought he was going into to educate the masses and recruit them to his point of view with his oratory skills. Instead he’s remembered for wearing a red leotard and pretending to be a cat lapping up milk from the hands of Rula Lenska.

It was a seriously funny TV moment and the fact George survived such a spectacle is quite remarkable.

But Dan Neal is something different altogether, and he has caused considerable concern among fellow police officers. They’re worried he may talk about the investigation and so jeopardise any possible future trials. Neal has worked on the operation for the past eight months and is obviously privy to insider information about some extremely high-profile figures.

He may have vowed not to give anything away (and officers who leave the Met have to sign the Official Secrets Act), but if he remains in the BB house, who is to say what confidences he might share late at night in the hot tub over a few beers with his new pals?

Obviously Channel 5 would not broadcast anything damaging to the police case, but we all know how things can be leaked, especially in the age of Twitter, Facebook and other social media. Neal has apparently told producers that he found working on the investigation “draining and upsetting”, which sounds as though he needed a bit of a break and was perhaps not cut out to be a copper.

Appearing on TV being humiliated and manipulated by the Big Brother producers is surely not the way to cope with such stress, and also not the ideal career path for a 33-year-old.

I suspect he’ll rue the day he sacrificed a good, steady job just to appear briefly in Heat magazine or the like.