Channel 4’s The Circle: Who is Worthing’s Tally Brattle?

The 23-year-old doctor’s surgery receptionist is playing the game, which sees contestants interact through made-up social media profiles, as herself.

But who is Tally Brattle?

Before she entered the refurbished block of flats that house The Circle’s contestants, Tally outlined her reasons for entering the game.

“I got quite badly bullied at school, I had glasses and was really lanky,” she said.

“I started posting pictures of myself and editing them quite a lot. Over the last two years I have built this Instagram that doesn’t really represent me as a person. I’m kind of embarrassed of my own Instagram.

“I really want to go on The Circle to strip everything back and be perceived as my normal quirky self rather than these posey, edited pictures. I want to see if you are really only accepted if you look a certain way.”

In The Circle, contestants never meet in real life but instead communicate through a specially designed app.

They can set their profiles up to be whoever they want to be on the app, leaving the game wide open for ‘catfishing’ (the act of luring someone into a relationship with a fictional persona).

Tally said becoming a catfish requires a ‘killer game plan’ and admitted she was too ‘flakey and all over the gaff’ to pull it off.

Instead, her tactic is to befriend everyone and be super chatty, she said, adding she will be playing it single so could incorporate flirting into her game plan.

Being herself also means there is less to worry about in trying to maintain a fictional character.

“I’m all over the shop,” she said.

“I trip over my lies and my memory is horrific. I have the memory of a goldfish. I’d lie about something and make notes, but then forget where I put the notes. I just wouldn’t be able to pull it off.

“I do think that I’ve got a good enough personality and my pictures, even when I don’t edit them aren’t unbearable to look at. I think I’ve got the best chance if I’m just myself. I’ve got all my unedited pictures ready, which I wouldn’t normally put on Instagram. I’ve also got an Instagram folder as a backup, because if it all goes wrong, I still want to win!”

Tally said she has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which can lead her to struggle to process what comes out of her mouth before she says it.

To counter it, she said she thinks heavily about everything she says but can be undone by impulsivity if she is angry or upset.

Her Instagram account gives her an escape from who she is in day-to-day life, she said.

“I think in person I’m weird, a bit dorky, the class clown, quirky and loud, whereas on Instagram I’m posey, subdued and I look serious,” she said.

“I’m not at all like that in person. I never put anything too out there on Instagram out of fear, it’s ridiculous.

“I’m completely aware of how much of a damaging place it can be. Sometimes I think I’m going to just scrap social media but the problem with our generation is that you completely alienate yourself if you do that.”

Among the contestants of The Circle, the two most popular each episode are voted ‘influencers’, who then have the power to remove, or ‘block’, another contestant.

The last contestant standing walks away with £100,000.

Tally’s plans for the winnings, should she come out on top, are admirable.

“I’d put it towards a flat because it’s impossible to get a mortgage nowadays,” she said.

“Also, there’s an animal sanctuary near me, in someone’s back garden that two elderly ladies run. I would love to donate some of the money to them. I would feel so good by giving a small chunk of it away.”

The next episode of The Circle is on Channel 4 tonight (March 25) at 10pm.