HE'S KNOWN as one of Scotland's most distinguished actors, renowned for starring roles in Braveheart and Game of Thrones. Now, however, bookies are predicting that James Cosmo looks set to be the unlikely winner of Celebrity Big Brother.
The 69-year-old actor who is currently starring in Trainspotting 2 as the father of the loveable anti-hero Renton, played by Ewan McGregor, has had roles in some of the biggest hits in Scottish cinema. He played Angus MacLeod in Highlander, and Campbell, the father of Brendan Gleeson's character Hamish in Braveheart. He also starred in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Troy and Ben-Hur.
Eyebrows were raised when he took his place in the Big Brother house along with the likes of Geordie Shore reality star Chloe Ferry, TV presenter Kim Woodburn of How Clean is Your House, and model and reality TV regular Bianca Gascoigne, the stepdaughter of footballer Paul Gascoigne. Others in the long running celebrity show, now in its 19th season, include Loose Women star Coleen Nolan, Irish singing twins Jedward and Callum Best.
Yet the unlikely reality star is now odds-on favourite to win the final this Friday. Both Sky Bet and Paddy Power are placing him as joint favourite along with Jedward at 9/4. Coral are offering odds of 5/2 on his victory with BetVictor also offering 9/4.
Some popular cultural commentators have raised questions about why an actor of his standing is taking part in the first place. Celebrity gossip site Digital Spy noted: "We can only assume he's an absolutely massive Big Brother fan...he's way too good for that house".
The gravel-voiced Scot, originally from Clydebank, has won over his fellow housemates, who voted for him to be granted "eternal immunity" from the Celebrity Big Brother public vote, which means he assured a place in the final next Friday.
His appearance hasn't been without controversy - in one episode the actor admitted to having had a "violent past" telling housemate and American singer Stacy Francis: "For the majority of my life until I met my wife, I was not in a good place. I was not a good man. I've been violent in the past." All that changed, he claimed when he met his wife and had a son.
Meanwhile fans are hoping the bookies are right to put their faith in him as the winner. One commented on the Digital Spy forum: "I'd love him to win over all the try-hards in there. Doing nothing except being charming and a nice person is such a rarity on this show. So he's my choice of winner." While another, referencing his Trainspotting fame quipped: "Choose Life...Choose Cosmo".
It is now 20 years since the original Dutch show Big Brother, which takes its name from the character in George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, was created by producer John de Mol in 1997. It premiered in the UK in 2000 and heralded in a new age in ubiquitous reality television shows. A year later spin-off celebrity Big Brother was born and remains a popular culture phenomenon to be reckoned with. Series producers claimed viewing figures jumped from 1.3million to 2.3million last week after a series of violent verbal outbursts from 74-year-old Kim Woodburn.
Gladeana Mcmahon, one of the UK's leading psychological advisors for reality TV, agreed that Cosmo was unlikely to have taken part to raise his profile. "People take part for many reasons," she said. "For existing celebrities it is often just a job for which they get paid and get exposure from. However, for some it's about the experience as they are in the enviable position of being able to chose."
Mcmahon, who was the driving force behind the "Ethical Guidelines for Reality TV" produced by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, said it was important that individuals were "emotionally robust" but admitted: "Sometimes individuals do regret taking part. Even celebrities have had difficulties...Jade Goody, Fearn Britain and Vanessa Feltz to name but three. All came out to a hostile reaction."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here