Big Brother - love it or loathe it, it was revolutionary.

So, after eleven series and a few hundred contestants, the reality-TV show Big Brother has finally come to an end. The show, which has somewhat limped to the finishing post over recent months (or years as some may argue) went out with a bang last night with Brian Dowling being crowned ‘ultimate housemate’. Channel 4’s ridiculously overblown five hour marathon documenting the past decade of the show dragged on and at times was just cringe worthy. However, after all the customary moaning as the finale concluded, it started to dawn on me that Big Brother had far more of an impact on our society than many would like to admit.


Starting in 2000 the show began very much as a game show, the name deriving from George Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ in which ‘Big Brother’ monitors the inhabitants living under his dictatorship through their TVs. The first series began as a relatively low-key affair with average ratings for a late night channel 4 show. However, that changed forever when millions tuned in to watch the show-down between Craig Phillips and ‘Nasty’ Nick Bateman over the latter’s attempts to influence other housemates votes. Nick was removed from the house to public outrage and had to live in hiding for weeks while Craig went onto win the series. I’d be here all day if I was going to document every year of the show but the subsequent series included fights, romance, meltdowns, race rows, celebrity spin-off shows, not to mention wine bottles being used for unorthodox means.

The show was the first of its kind and defined the next decade of prime-time television. Producers began realising that throwing a load of people onto a set and filming them would rake in the viewers. Big Brother led to a huge wave of reality TV shows and the phenomenon just grew and grew not just in the UK but across the world.

The show has always polarised opinion, especially as time has gone on. While some saw the programme as a stroke of genius; a fascinating social experiment proving that something as obvious as watching people living in a house can make for the most captivating of television viewing, others branded it the lowest form of entertainment; a freak show of fame-hungry, talentless cretin’s.

I’m somewhere in the middle. I think the concept is simply genius and at the time entirely revolutionary. I also think it has made for some of the most memorable moments of television over the past decade. Whether people love or loathe the show, everyone can recall ‘Nasty’ Nick’s antics, the Jade/Shilpa race row and Kinga getting acquainted with a bottle of Pinot. However, I think the show has had a bigger impact on our society than many realise and I don’t think it’s a positive one.

Pretty soon after the show began in 2000, it became apparent that certain evictee’s from the show were going to enter the ‘real’ world under some sort of media spotlight and relative fame. This spawned an influx of individuals applying to the show simply as a short-cut to a life of lavishness and fame. Nothing wrong with that, many would argue and to a point they would be right, it has given some opportunities that wouldn’t have arisen otherwise and who am I to say they shouldn’t have been given that chance. However, I think it has led to this ridiculous modern day celebrity culture we live in where you don’t have to have actually achieved or indeed done anything for people to obsess over your life and I find that a bizarre and rather sad state of affairs.

Just think back to life before Big Brother. For the front pages of the tabloids to be dominated with the death of somebody for months on the end you would think they would have done something or been someone pretty special wouldn’t you? A freedom fighter? A musican? An actor? A footballer even? But no, the carry on over the talentless, bigoted, irritating, brainless nonentity that was Jade Goody just saddened me to the core. I’m not saying her death wasn’t tragic and I understand she used her profile to raise awareness of her illness which was admirable. However, this woman gained probably 100 times the press coverage someone like, for example Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the democracy movement in Burma who has been under house arrest for the past two decades, has ever got. Even our fucking Prime Minister commented about her death. It’s not Jade’s fault, she made the most of what she had and this should be respected but I think it’s very sad that people like her are revered by so many and it is undoubtedly down to this new wave of celebrity culture that Big Brother instigated.

I guess many would argue that it actually isn’t much of a problem; Big Brother contestants never got much coverage in ‘proper’ publications such as The Guardian, The Independent and The Times anyway and anyone with a brain is bemused at least about the obsession over these nobodies. And if I’m totally honest, I’ll always have an enjoyable flick through the pages of Heat round my girlfriends when no one is around. I just believe people should be admired for doing or being something special not just for.. being.

Despite this, a little part of me was sad to watch Davina sign off for one last time last night. As much as I’ve tried to fight it, the show has made for some great television and has been a true phenomenon over the past decade. Whether you see it as a good or a bad thing, or indeed both, – in its own little way, it has been revolutionary.