With the bookies at the moment, the Top 4 Big Brother contenders are Deana, Adam, Lauren and Luke A – the four members of the group known to each-other and to the viewers as The Outsiders.

This week, with face-to-face nominations, Lauren and Luke A are up for eviction, outnumbered by ringleaders Conor and Caroline and their sort-of-followers Scott, Becky, Sara, Ashleigh and Luke S.

When it comes to who’s going to win, it’s inevitable that the public will pick the underdogs over those who take up the classic high school-style Regina George role. But there’s a flaw in the system if we’re forced to choose between two of them for eviction. With the unfortunate and thoroughly disappointing transfer of Becky from bubbly and entertaining favourite to superior bitch, The Outsiders are now the only four will almost certainly beat whoever they are up against in a public vote – except, of course, if they’re put up against each-other.

Forced to pick, the show could probably cope better without the increasingly grumpy Luke A; but some kind of twist now needs to be introduced to ensure that some of the more loathsome ringleaders are shown the door before The Outsiders just get plucked off one by one over the next few weeks.

It’s all well and good wanting to keep the firey characters in for the drama, but we’re sure as hell not gonna be tuning in night after night if we don’t actually like anyone.

It’s been a few days since Big Brother bosses re-introduced the ban on all nomination discussion between housemates, and the results of the first truly private vote of the season have been unveiled.

It’ll be a tricky one this week, with news that Deana and Lydia are facing off.

Deana is certainly slightly less hated than Lydia, and were it a Vote To Evict she’d be laughing. But Lydia, much as she is a detestable character, has provided the show with most of its fireworks so far. Will that be enough to keep her in in a Vote To Save scenario?

The contestants’ reaction to the news will be shown on Big Brother’s Bit On The Side tonight (June 25), before the nominations are exposed in full tomorrow (June 26).

In other news, Lauren has had a surge in support since surviving the chop last Friday, and is now the third favourite to win. Luke A and Adam are the joint favourites, each of them on 6/1.

Deana and Lydia had a bit of a showdown in the Big Brother house tonight after Deana committed the heinous crime of discussing periods at the dinner table.

Lydia was absolutely appalled by the un-lady-like conduct and the two attempted to talk it over in the bedroom before descending fairly quickly into a semi-aggressive quarrel.

Both of them are in the bottom two with bookies in the Outright Winner markets (Deana is 14th on 33/1; Lydia 15th on 50/1), and yet as housemates they continue to make this series a true Big Brother classic.

Y’know what’d be fascinating to know? How Lydia thinks of herself. Does she think of herself as ‘the sane one’? The one who is the voice of reason in a house of nutters? Or does she, like the rest of us, see herself as an infuriatingly miserable villain?

Watch the fight on YouTube here.

Tonight Becky Hannon entered the Big Brother house as the wildcard entrant… and is already the bookies’ favourite to win.

The 19 year-old North Welsh joker, who is studying Community Drama in Liverpool, was told she had won the 3-way vote, entered the compound, ran around screaming “COME ON! COME ON! COME ON!” and jumped in the pool fully clothed before actually introducing herself to anyone.

She’s amazing.

With odds of 5/2 she has eclipsed all fifteen existing contestants and is considered the frontrunner to win.

As they stand:

• Becky 5/2
• Benedict 7/1
• Luke Anderson 8/1
• Caroline 12/1
• Chris 12/1
• Shievonne 14/1
• Sara 14/1
• Conor 14/1
• Lauren 14/1
• Adam 16/1
• Ashleigh 18/1
• Arron 22/1
• Scott 25/1
• Luke Scrase 33/1
• Deana 40/1
• Lydia 40/1

Victoria was evicted earlier this evening, losing out by less than 1% of the vote.

Big Brother 2012 is now firmly underway with a much better cluster of housemates than last year’s anticlimactic let-down.

But following Deana’s first-impression-nominations there’s a danger of evicting a right corker too early, a la Anoushka in Big Brother 4 (remember Big Brother 4? No? Exactly). Still, the Vote To Save might nip that in the bud.

Anyway, Lydia – the one whose boyfriend is the Andy Scott-Lee (us neither, but she reckons he’s really famous) – is the firm bookies’ favourite to be shown the exit tonight after just three nights in the compound. Her odds are generally around the 1/5 mark.

Victoria is the second favourite to go, and with odds of 3/1 there’s a real chance she could go over Lydia. Conor’s pretty safe – his odds are a distant 16/1.

Luke Anderson is favourite to win on 5/1, with Benedict on 6/1, Caroline on 8/1 and wildcard tip Rebecca, who hasn’t even become a housemate yet, the fourth favourite on 9/1.

Lydia is the 100/1 outsider to be crowned champion.

Very sad news today that Big Brother 10 contestant Sophia Brown has passed away at the young age of 30.

The 4ft 11in contestant was the first to be evicted from the 2009 series, the penultimate one to run on Channel 4.

Sophie Reade, who won that year’s season, wrote on Twitter today:

Devastated to hear the news about sophia, such an amazing lady and a pleasure to known her. Cant believe it #RIP

Karly Ashworth, who was also on the show with her, said:

#RIP to Sophia Brown who was also on my series of Big Brother. Such sad news. My thoughts are with her family and friends. X

Narrator Marcus Bentley added:

Such very sad news about BB 10 housemate Sophia Brown – god bless Sophia xx

The cause of death is unknown, but Sophia had been suffering from lupus since childhood – a disease that hinders the immune system.

Our thoughts are with her friends and family.