Latest line of celebrities roll up for ‘Big Brother’

Drug-ban horse racing jockey Frankie Dettori, former Steps star Claire Richards, and X Factor contestant Rylan Clark last night entered the Celebrity Big Brother house after weeks of speculation about the line-up.

They are joined in the latest series of the Channel 5 show by ex-EastEnders and Footballers Wives actress Gillian Taylforth, model Paula Hamilton, and former football star Neil “Razor” Ruddock.

One absentee is comedian Jim Davidson who had been due to appear but was dropped after being arrested and questioned by detectives over allegations of sexual offences which he denies.

Clark was installed as favourite to win the show by bookmaker William Hill, with Dettori next.

Also taking part are Neighbours star Ryan Maloney, as well as former Coronation Street actor Sam Robertson, and reality TV couple Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt. One-time Heartbeat actress Tricia Penrose, and glamour model Lacey Banghard complete the line-up.

There had been rumours that wild-child Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan would be taking part, but she was missing from the list of stars who rolled up to the studios at Elstree, Hertfordshire, to enter the house.

The contestants will spend the next few days holed up in the custom- built property in full glare of TV cameras with a winner emerging later this month if they can prove popular enough with viewers and housemates. The series is expected to last three weeks, with the first eviction due on Wednesday.

Dettori enters the house just weeks after he was given a six-month ban from his sport after a positive drugs test.

“It doesn’t matter what I took or how much — what I can say is it didn’t make me ride any better or make my horse run any faster,” the Italian-born showman said after the ban, which followed a positive test in Paris in September.