It has, sadly, become a summer tradition. Every year since 2000, as a new series of Big Brother takes over the schedules of Channel 4 and its withered offspring, E4, an army of soi-disant intelligent people who neither watch the show nor get it, feel entitled to inflict their uninformed opinions upon the rest of us via their newspaper columns and TV and radio programmes.
This year, unsurprisingly given the furore surrounding the recent Celebrity Big Brother, has been no different. Last Thursday’s Guardian TV blog had Zoe Williams instantly and mistakenly ascribing to racism the hostile reception meted out to a black housemate. Yet it was obvious to anyone who had seen the preceding VT, that the woman in question might not have done herself any favours by proudly declaring a sense of entitlement to a champagne lifestyle, despite being quite unwilling to go out and get a proper job. Then again, reading Williams’ Grauniad profile (”Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist. She also contributes to the New Statesman.”), it’s easy to see why the idea of a proper job might be lost on her.
Williams’ piece was posted at 9.13am, a mere 28 minutes after über-pundit Mark Lawson smeared the outcome of his own orgy of prurient, hypocritical curtain-twitching across the same site.
What such lucrative “journalism” fails to acknowledge is that the born-in-the-Netherlands Big Brother is not only as British as Tommy Trinder and rioting, it is also, if you’ll pardon the expression, TV gold. My personal favourite was series two, back in 2001 (Brian, Bubble, Helen, Josh, Dean, etc.), although the 2006 Celebrity Big Brother (George Galloway, Dennis Rodman, Michael Barrymore, Pete Burns) was probably the most perfectly cast, and nearly every series contains moments of televisual genius and/or unscriptable brillance: drama, comedy, social commentary, freakshow.
The 2007 vintage, as usual at this early stage, could go either way: it could conceivably reach the heights of 2001, or plumb the boring (2003) or horrifying (2004) depths. But the early signs are promising, with a (nearly) all-female house which I am surprised has not yet caught the attention of my esteemed friends at I Blame the Patriarchy. My current favourite is hairy, hefty peacenik Carole (above), but I’m also warming to the grumpy but gorgeous Nicky, the scary twins Amanda and Samantha, and even the silky-smooth reincarnation of Adam Faith, Ziggy.
Fellow fan Little Miss Lazybones has, perhaps wisely, opted against blogging on this topic, and I too will try to refrain for the duration of my favourite summer distraction. Perhaps those too dim to appreciate the show’s qualities might do the same.
3 Comments
ach, i was excited to see who little miss lazybones was, another BB fan, hurrah, so am a little disappointed it’s me.
yes, i have banned BB discussion on my blog, not sure why, i was just feeling wholesome.
but, billy bob, you cannot be warming to the vacuous, hugely untalented twins, surely not?
i like ziggy. he is polite.
good, i can come here to vent, as well as over at mellifluous dark’s.
yes, i watch, but i am a wee bit ashamed.
The twins are straight out of David Lynch, amusing and terrifying at the same time. Although since that disgusting ginger thing went in on Friday I have been refusing to watch the show, much less discuss it…
Ach, the twins are not dark or complex enough for David Lynch, they are just daft wee girls. I think Seany is more Lynchian myself.
Post a Comment