Despite being one of the youngest ever in the famous house, she’s among the most mature in a houseful of chaos
(Image: ITV)
She’s one of the youngest people ever to go into the famous Big Brother house, but in a year full of more than the usual fall-outs, gossiping, back-stabbing and arguments, a teenage girl from Bristol is rising above it all to win the hearts of the show’s fans across the country.
Teja Dalphy – who viewers saw celebrating her 19th birthday in the Big Brother house this week – has been quietly navigating her way through one of the more tempestuous series in recent years, and is being ranked now as one of the favourites to win.
For those of you who haven’t watched Big Brother for years, if ever, the show is pretty much the same as it always was – albeit with slightly higher production values now it’s on ITV rather than the old days of Channel 4 or Channel 5. There is the usual mix of very different kinds of people – albeit all with the inexplicable desire to be on telly, and to be filmed from scores of cameras 24 hours a day, and made to do silly tasks while falling out with the people they are living with.
This year’s series has seen plenty of drama with, for the first time really, the outside culture wars creeping in to what is usually a fairly politics-free zone most years.
One housemate, George Gilbert, was kicked out for repeatedly breaching the rules around saying unbroadcastably offensive things, while others in the house have contributed to rows over politics and identity politics too. There was – until he was evicted last week – a transgender man in the house, along with a pansexual woman, while a couple of other housemates have voiced what might be considered views on the other end of the culture wars spectrum, including a more mature PR diva Caroline, who has described how she’s best mates with Nigel Farage.
There’s also a young Twitter-influencer-Tory Emily Hewertson, who was evicted on the first night before she’d even unpacked. Within days, she was in the national media explaining she was evicted because she was a Tory, despite the fact she was evicted by some of her fellow housemates who had no clue who she was.
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Emily was brought back in last week, as the show lurched from one row to another, with splits in friendship groups, accusations of bullying, offensive behaviour, failed tasks and bitter acrimony bubbling under the surface and regularly bursting through. There’s even one young woman in there, Elsa Rae, a 21-year-old social media content creator, who fell hopelessly in love with fellow contestant Marcus, then revealed to a shocked house that she has been able to see spirits, ghosts and demons since she was a child, and was sensing there were demonic presences in the house with them.
As a microcosm of just how crazy, diverse and oddball British society has become, there even have been conversations in which some of the housemates – including Elsa – talk about how they believe unicorns are real and are eaten by the secretive elites running the world, and the world is also flat.
So that’s where we are, and that’s probably why level-headed, funny, sensible and smart Teja is absolutely smashing it in there. In a houseful of people with questionable views, opinions and beliefs, the down-to-earth teen has shown that despite being 18 – now 19 – she’s one of the most emotionally-mature people in there.
While people twice or almost three times her age gossip and argue over the slightest slights, run off crying when they are mean to people and spark an argument back, Teja has been serene and swan-like, floating gracefully through the choppy waters while people argue around her.
That’s not to say she hasn’t stood up for herself. When she’s had to, she’s argued her point well, taking a stance against bad behaviour and standing up to those in the house who have begun talking from a point of intolerance about race or migration, gender or sexism.
Teja Dalphy talks to George Gilbert, who was later kicked out of the Big Brother house for offensive behaviour(Image: Shutterstock for Big Brother)
Back in Bristol, Teja comes from a big, blended, extended, complicated but loving Bristol family. When she was up for eviction, her family members took to social media to spread the word about how to vote for her – and it worked, posts were shared around Bristol social media in their scores, and Teja was saved from eviction.
Her mum too has made an appearance. She and Teja run a cleaning company together – “It’s good money and you get to be your own boss, because I hate being told what to do,” Teja explained – so they are very close.
Teja earned a video call with her mum, and this week it set the cat among the pigeons when Teja’s mum warned her to be wary of fellow housemate Caroline. “Yeah, I’ve met a lot of Carolines in my life,” she warned. “She’s not your friend. She never was your friend. I feel like she’s intimidated by you. She’s going after someone like Richard who she can go after because he won’t say anything, but people like.”
In a rollercoaster ride that is a series of Big Brother, things can change in an instant and who knows how long Teja can survive for – there’s multiple evictions this week, as producers whittle down the crowd to approach a final.
But even if she somehow leaves this week or next, Teja has done Bristol proud. If you haven’t caught the series this year, she’s given Bristol viewers a reason to, and everyone in the city should be voting for her.
