Big Brother's late show

Maker of Celebrity Big Brother - which starts on Channel 4 tonight - desperately had to ring round scores of female stars after all the original contestants dropped out.

Model Caprice, former Coronation Street actress Denise Welch, TV presenter Mel Giedroyc, comic Dawn French and presenter Esther Rantzen had all been lined up at various stages to appear in the reality show where six celebrities live together for nine days to raise money for charity.

But by last night, all of them had dropped out "for their own personal reasons", according to station sources, leaving Channel 4 with only hours to fill the spaces.

The station was left with no alternative but to get on the phone to celebrity agents across the UK. One source said: "It's been a bit of an 11th-hour battle to secure six people."

But at lunchtime, the women who have been secured were: Mel Giedroyc's TV sidekick Sue Perkins, former page three girl Melinda Messenger - who is taking time out from her modelling career to study philosophy - and former TV-am host Anne Diamond.

Channel 4 said that the final line-up cannot be announced until tonight, though the women are set to be joined by Mark Owen, formerly of Take That, fading TV host Les Dennis and DJ and EastEnders actor Goldie.