HURSTBOURNE Tarrant teenager Jonathan Anderson was auditioned to be part of Channel 4's third Big Brother series - but in the end he was pleased not to be chosen.

He decided to have a go because he wanted to do something different and Nick Bateman who starred in the first series -and whose mother lives in the village - suggested the idea to him.

Jonathan, aged 18, who lives in The Square, was one of about 30,000 people who applied to be auditioned for the blockbuster programme about three weeks ago.

"They sent out questionnaires and we also had to make a five minute video of ourselves," he said.

He was successful in landing an audition and travelled up to London to try his luck.

But he was unsure about the tasks they were asked to perform.

"One involved us all sitting in a circle with a stick in the middle," he said.

"We each had to jump over the stick and talk about ourselves for 20 minutes." Another task involved holding straws in their mouths and passing a mint sweet between them without using their hands.

One test involved throwing a die to find out how many questions fellow contestants could ask.

Jonathan threw a six.

Jonathan is studying, among other subjects, media and communications studies at Peter Symond's College in Winchester.

Later this year he will be taking part in Camp America. But he fancied doing something a little different after finishing college and before travelling out to America.

"In the end I was relieved not to be chosen for the programme because the people there were not the sort of people you would want to live with for nine weeks," said Jonathan.