From the BBC News Site

Reality TV show Big Brother portrays role models with values that inspire its viewers, the chief executive of Channel 4 has said.

Andy Duncan said the show offered positive values, transformatory experiences and examples of personal self-improvement and growth.

The contestants had honesty, integrity, constancy and kindness, he added.

Mr Duncan, a practising Christian, was talking to a Christian group about his channel's religious output.

Personal growth

He added that while he understood some may find the behaviour and language of some Big Brother contestants as immoral, he urged fellow Christians to reassess their views on the popular series.

"Tolerance and understanding of others - fundamental New Testament values - can only be built on knowledge and respect. Condemnation so often springs from ignorance and fear," he said.

Mr Duncan joined Channel 4 in July last year

"Big Brother winners are all role models in their way, not only because over past series they've included ethnic minorities, a gay man, a transsexual as well as an evangelical Christian, but because in the final analysis viewers choose people whose values they identify with and admire.

"For many viewers they offer positive examples and practical inspiration for their own lives, and that's something I'm certainly not ashamed of."

The current Big Brother series has seen contestants drinking heavily, swearing at each other and swapping sexual favours.

I bet Mr Duncan wears socks with his sandals.

I bet Mr Duncan wears socks with his sandals.

that is a vicious statement Cat and I might just report it to a personage at C4!

I would also like to add what Big Brother is Mr Duncan watching???! There is not ENOUGH alcohol in that house ... as for sexual favour swapping, where, when, what, how, who?!??!

From this week's Private Eye:

Like teachers desperate to prove they are "down with the kids" by talking about Kylie Minogue in assembly, the last fortnight has seen two men who ought to know better take Big Brother as the subject of their sermons.
First into the fray was Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan, who told an evangelical Christian group there was a "moral dimension to the programme and contestants who displayed the greatest humanity - qualities such as honesty and kindness - tended to win through."
On the night he made his speech to the Faithworks group, the housemates were given their new task: to lie to one of their companions who would be forced to spend several hours handling live maggots and performing other equally unpleasant tasks while they enjoyed three days of luxury parties behind his back.
A week later, presenting the campaign for Racial Equality's "Race in the Media" awards, chairman Trevor Phillips praised the Channel 4 reality show as "a chance for many British people to encounter people from other ethnic groups they would never meet in their own everyday lives," and pointed out that "most encouragingly ... they seem completely uninfluenced by issues of race and ethnicity in deciding who they want to chuck out or keep in."
With perfect timing, Phillips made his speech on the very night the housemates, who had split completely along racial lines, had their most furious argument yet, with the ringleader of the white gang (who had commandeered the house's living room) telling one of the black group (who confined themselves to the kitchen) that her afro hair was "a f*cking wig", she "smelt of dog$hit" and that "you've got a chip on your shoulder, people like you always do." Evicted last week, however, white Saskia clarified her position on the matter - her objection to the other housemates was "not about colour", it was simply that they were "a bunch of bloody monkeys".

I bet Mr Duncan wears socks with his sandals.

And a pair of glasses with beer-bottle-bottom lenses, taped together at the edges with frayed plasters, a 70s haircut modeled after his favourite Slade band member, a grey cardigan with those leather patches at the elbows, and one of those hearing aids that never quite works. And he thinks bling is a cartoon animal, he just cant remember which one.

From this week's Private Eye:

Like teachers desperate to prove they are "down with the kids" by talking about Kylie Minogue in assembly, the last fortnight has seen two men who ought to know better take Big Brother as the subject of their sermons.
First into the fray was Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan, who told an evangelical Christian group there was a "moral dimension to the programme and contestants who displayed the greatest humanity - qualities such as honesty and kindness - tended to win through."
On the night he made his speech to the Faithworks group, the housemates were given their new task: to lie to one of their companions who would be forced to spend several hours handling live maggots and performing other equally unpleasant tasks while they enjoyed three days of luxury parties behind his back.
A week later, presenting the campaign for Racial Equality's "Race in the Media" awards, chairman Trevor Phillips praised the Channel 4 reality show as "a chance for many British people to encounter people from other ethnic groups they would never meet in their own everyday lives," and pointed out that "most encouragingly ... they seem completely uninfluenced by issues of race and ethnicity in deciding who they want to chuck out or keep in."
With perfect timing, Phillips made his speech on the very night the housemates, who had split completely along racial lines, had their most furious argument yet, with the ringleader of the white gang (who had commandeered the house's living room) telling one of the black group (who confined themselves to the kitchen) that her afro hair was "a f*cking wig", she "smelt of dog$hit" and that "you've got a chip on your shoulder, people like you always do." Evicted last week, however, white Saskia clarified her position on the matter - her objection to the other housemates was "not about colour", it was simply that they were "a bunch of bloody monkeys".

LOL! :D I love Private Eye magazine. Thanks for the quote it made me laugh.