“Why has it taken so long for “Big Brother” to be terminated?
So asked John Bell (of the Iona Community) on Radio4’s “Thought for the Day” back in August last year. Apparently, the final series has now duly arrived. I say “apparently” because I think I’ve only ever watched half a programme. Somewhat frighteningly, “Big Brother” is a programme that the Head of Channel Four has called “the most influential show of the modern era”. I’ve just read Charlie Brooker’s entertaining “screen burn” in yesterday’s Guardian “Guide” on the final Celebrity Big Brother. In it, he lists the participating “celebrities” and, frankly (and I realise this says more about me than anything else), I’ve only ever heard of two of them (Vinnie Jones and Stephanie Beacham). Rather crudely, but very effectively, Brooker describes some of the current celebrities thus: “Two of the contestants appear to have been invited to participate on the basis that they’ve been inside a famous person, and one because a famous person has been inside them. That’s not celebrity, that’s proximity”! That's just brilliant!!
John Bell concluded his radio piece in the following way: "Big Brother is said to regularly attract more than 2million viewers. Its proponents will say that it caters for an audience. But I doubt if anyone grows ONE INCH in moral stature in what, at times, can be seen as a televisual diet of dysfunction”.
Precisely.
PS: The only worry is that you just know that whatever replaces it is likely to be just as bad.
PPS: I realise that I’ve groaned on about Big Brother before (sorry!).
So asked John Bell (of the Iona Community) on Radio4’s “Thought for the Day” back in August last year. Apparently, the final series has now duly arrived. I say “apparently” because I think I’ve only ever watched half a programme. Somewhat frighteningly, “Big Brother” is a programme that the Head of Channel Four has called “the most influential show of the modern era”. I’ve just read Charlie Brooker’s entertaining “screen burn” in yesterday’s Guardian “Guide” on the final Celebrity Big Brother. In it, he lists the participating “celebrities” and, frankly (and I realise this says more about me than anything else), I’ve only ever heard of two of them (Vinnie Jones and Stephanie Beacham). Rather crudely, but very effectively, Brooker describes some of the current celebrities thus: “Two of the contestants appear to have been invited to participate on the basis that they’ve been inside a famous person, and one because a famous person has been inside them. That’s not celebrity, that’s proximity”! That's just brilliant!!
John Bell concluded his radio piece in the following way: "Big Brother is said to regularly attract more than 2million viewers. Its proponents will say that it caters for an audience. But I doubt if anyone grows ONE INCH in moral stature in what, at times, can be seen as a televisual diet of dysfunction”.
Precisely.
PS: The only worry is that you just know that whatever replaces it is likely to be just as bad.
PPS: I realise that I’ve groaned on about Big Brother before (sorry!).
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