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3 September 2007

Thumbs up for 'caring' Twins

Sam and Amanda

Image for Thumbs up for 'caring' Twins

BIG BROTHER twins Sam and Amanda Marchant would make great social workers, according to a leading professor.

The twins, who completed the first year of a BA in Social Work at Manchester Metropolitan before going into TV’s most famous house, say they are not ready to return to lectures just yet.

But Peter Beresford, professor of social policy at Brunel University, hopes the 19-year-olds continue their degree and are a good advert for the profession.

Apart from their ‘street-cred, warmth and spontaneity’, Professor Beresford says the BB runners-up flew in the face of the dismal values of the reality show set-up: "They are warm, friendly and hug people – perfect social workers!"

Writing in the social work magazine Community Care, he says: "Sam and Amanda didn’t feed arguments. They didn’t bitch. They weren’t two-faced over nominations. They didn’t claim to be unique or try to be outrageous.

Comforting

"They had girls and boys as friends in the house. They comforted and hugged other housemates who were upset.

"Weren’t we seeing what led them onto a social work course in the first place? Aren’t these just the sort of qualities service users repeatedly say they want from social work practitioners?"

During the show the professor says he urged people to vote for them because a vote for the twins was "a vote against all the hate-generating values of Big Brother."

MMU psychologist David Holmes, from the School of Health, Psychology and Social Change at Manchester Metropolitan University where the twins completed their first year, also believes the twins will return to social work but says they are understandably not ready to return immediately.

Instant fame

Dr Holmes said: "The shock of fame and the unreality of life locked away in the all summer will leave the 19-year-olds in a spin for weeks if not months.

"Coming out of the house is an extreme experience because the sudden realisation of one's celebrity. It's like coming back down to another planet.

"They will be very restless and lack concentration for some time, unable to settle back into anything like their former life.

"Thankfully they are very down to earth personalities; they have not adopted personas or been on the sort of ego-trip that affected Jade Goodey and so many others who are thrust into the limelight.

Intelligent

"I'd be very surprised if we see them back but I do believe they will come back, perhaps the following year, to finish their studies. Their immediate celebrity could be a barrier for them returning immediately but if they do it will be therapeutic for them.

"The media liked to portray Sam and Amanda as dizzy blondes but there was a lot more to them than that. They showed intelligence and maturity which bodes well for their future as students and as potential social workers.

"They showed resilience and compassion when others became self-absorbed and when they squealed and laughed we all felt their joy because it was genuine."

For more about social work and social care courses at MMU, go to www.did.stu.mmu.ac.uk/programmes/index.php