Big Brother 6, end of

The eleventh hour of the eleventh week...

Time I think to review the candidates for 2005's cleverest housemate.

I feel that the best cases can be made for Kemal, Science and Maxwell, all now departed, and none a great advertisement for raw brain-power - though Science certainly seemed a lot more user-friendly outside the house than in it.

Received media wisdom has it that Me-Kosi is "intelligent" whilst Anthony is as short of processing power as he is of stature. Neither judgement necessarily fits the facts. Opportunism and selfishness should not be mistaken for rounded intellect, nor is simpleminded, religiously inflected self-devotion a token of empowerment. And whatever old Nick had to say on the matter, modern research supports the notion that niceness is almost always the best strategy.

The very thing that drives Craig mad about Anthony, his ability to hold onto the integrity of his own views about people like Roberto and Eugene, in spite of intense, localised peer pressure to join the mob, is a clear indication of the mental strength behind his stated strategy of having no strategy.

There's no question though that Anthony is one of the more educationally-challenged in the house, along with the likeable, latecoming Kinga. Yet both have demonstrated flourishes of wit - Antony's comparisons of Craig with Myra Hindley and The Cable Guy for instance, were spot on.

On the other end of the scale of education and elocution there was double-D Derek, who ably demonstrated how knowledge can be power as long as you establish early-on a reputation for having it. So what if Wimbledon is in June and Silver was the Lone Ranger's horse. Derek's claim to erudition was ultimately as authentic as Kemal's claim to diva-hood.

Derek doesn't so much shatter stereotypes as invert them, which is possibly why his personality appeared to be so provocative to the consumately chippy Makosi and Science.

Roberto was possibly the best all-round individual in the house, but no great intellectual.

Neither Craig or Eugene are at all dumb, but there's a certain lack of lucidity and self-awareness about them both.

The intentionality behind Saskia's cidergate outburst at Makosi felt darkly unpleasant at the time, but experience has shown that it was broadly accurate from a factual perspective. Saskia was possibly the smartest of the girls, but the competition wasn't that strong given that breasts appear to have been the key selection criteria this year.

The IQ wooden spoon belongs to Vanessa, whose general daytime alertness often resembled what neurologists call a persistent vegetative state.