IF the first day of Durham University's very own Big Brother house is anything to go by, they've got it all wrong.

Where are the tantrums, the banal dialogue and the desperate need to show off as much wobbly flesh as possible?

No one has stunned housemates with the revelation that "I love blinking, I do" and none of them has been within 50 yards of a chicken coop.

Mind you, they haven't had their first party yet.

Thanks to a new company, studentlifelive.com, second-year Durham students Lucinda Howard, Elena Lasurenko, Lizzi Malley and Si Culley are now living life in a virtual goldfish bowl.

The invasion of privacy is eagerly traded for rent-free accommodation and a constant supply of energy drink Red Bull for a year.

With cameras strategically placed in every room in the house - apart from the smallest room - the foursome are doing their best to ignore the 24-hour scrutiny that they are under.

Studentlifelive.com hopes the sophomore shenanigans will convince sixth formers that life at Durham University is not all gowns, mortar boards and dry dissertations.

As Lucinda, 20, points out, they are not necessarily intending to emulate Nasty Nick, naughty Narinder and the others.

"We can be a pretty wild bunch, but no one will really see us in full flow until we have our house warming party next week," she said.

"Until then, we are just trying to get used to having cameras poking into our lives all the time."

Housemate Si, 20, reckons he has already worked out how to cheat the cameras. "I've spotted a couple of blind spots where the cameras can't see us, which may come in handy for our party.

"I think we've pretty much forgotten they are there. Mind you, I can imagine coming out of the shower and wandering round the house naked - anyone on-line could be in for a shock."

Despite the round-the-clock intrusion, the housemates are confident their worst excesses - including student japes not suitable for a family newspaper, no doubt - will be shielded from their parents.

Lucinda said: "I think I speak for all of us when I say that our parents are computer illiterate. Therefore the chances of them actually viewing the cam are remote."