Radio Times

It's over and I am so glad, if only for the simple reason that at last the Greek chorus that has grown in increasing volume with each passing series, claiming that "this Big Brother will be the last", will finally be silenced.

I am delighted that the end is in sight for this shallow, superfluous and degrading farrago, and that this shrieking babel will at last subside.

It's argued that Big Brother has changed the landscape of British television and this is sadly true. More significantly, though, and much, much worse, Big Brother has become a cultural and social marker, a totem for the death of good manners and the birth of the "I want fame and I don't want to do anything to merit it and I want it NOW" culture among pin-brained kids (for my purposes, anyone aged between 13 and 30).

Big Brother has come to exemplify the worst aspects of British life - the stupidity, the laziness, the rudeness, the coarseness of a selfish society. In that respect, yes, it was highly significant because it perfectly mirrored wider Britain.

It was like listening to a drooling fool on a mobile, a yapping child wittering endless inanities, filling hours and hours with nothing at all. We've all sat next to them, the idiot who thinks nothing of discussing their most intimate thoughts and feelings in public, with no consideration for the sensibilities of others and no sense of personal privacy. That's Big Brother, an endless, boring mobile phone call.

Yet it started out so well, with a bright, interesting mix of mature adults (rather than mewling infants), one of whom (Nick Bateman) was deft enough to attempt to subvert the process, albeit not very subtly. But there were some good moments of genuine human interaction.

Down the years, though, Big Brother has become a bleak, depressing world where no-one ever shuts up as they belch endless, thick-eared inanities.

So it's apt that Big Brother's totem was Jade Goody, lionised for her stupidity in a way that could only happen in Britain, where we celebrate anti-intellectualism.

Ironically, though, she probably augured Big Brother's downfall with her part in the racist aspects of the 2007 Celebrity Big Brother, though in fairness it was her dim cohorts who were the most poisonous of that particularly nasty little group.

Big Brother's end will leave Channel 4 with lots of hours of primetime television to fill, which will test the channel's mettle, and its budget. Not before time.

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Alison Graham is TV editor of Radio Times - read her column in the latest issue of Radio Times magazine, on sale now.

You are right sadly BB has changed the television world not only in UK but across the globe.

Thanks,

Karim

"They should scrap all the reality T.V. shows and sopa operas and show porn after the watershed instead. At least that would be more honest", and what will watch after the first five minutes of your porn show Mr Mackie?

You are all talking as if this is the last series, get the facts before you make puerile comments, the next series is the LAST one.

I'm middle class in my 50s and I watch BB althoughit took me a while to get into it this year. I also think that these people who write such rants need a life. Maybe they should just chill and watch. Remember these inmates are getting jobs at the end, so think of it as a recruitment!!!

A quote from "johnny boy" - "I am a professional person who earns a reasonable income. I am a mature divorced father of one child. My point is that i watch BB because it makes me laugh like a train!! "

Chess, singing, dancing, politics, current affairs, reading etc.........

He's obviously never seen the phrase "laugh like a drain" in print.

Sorry mate but BB was a p*ss poor schedule filler that only really appealed to people who have nothing better to do with their consciousness. Human beings should be above this kind of peurile entertainment. You can accuse people of snobbery if you wish, but ultimately you are denying the fact that as a human (who claims to be quite cultured) then you should have the intelligence to find another time filler that lives up to your personal claims.

Just as a quick check - what do you mean by "chess to a very high level". Do you mean without magnets on the bottom of the pieces?

It was with great amusment that I read all your comments. I think you all need to sort it out and move on. If you resent the show as much as you all claim, then why are you wasting your lives writing about it online? I think its a love hate thing. I think you all love it.

I completely agree. Big Brother was a load of puerile drivel, only appealing to those with the intelligence of a gnat. How anyone can watch such a pile of excrement is beyond me. They should scrap all the reality T.V. shows and sopa operas and show porn after the watershed instead. At least that would be more honest.

Degenerated into nothing but a freak show, the bigger the freak the better your chance to get in.

It is always a bad idea to judge someone without hearing what they have to say.

I am a prepared to make an exception however in the following cases:

Habitual litterers

Habitual Sun Readers

Habitual BB Watchers.

It's not a good group to be in.

Big Brother is the ultimate in televised trash. I can only marvel that there are enough sad people out there to have kept it running for as long as it has.

I am a teacher in my early fifties. I have two teenaged children. I've watched every series of BB because I like it. Much of it is nonsense, some of it very interesting. People are interesting. I don't watch that much tv actually, never watching soaps or daytime tv - I'm a snob about that! What I find annoying about those that criticise BB is the ones who say that they have caught a few seconds in the years and it looked terrible. It would do. The only way it becomes interesting is when you follow it and see how people change and how their alliances alter as the series develops. I think the programme has come to its natural conclusion and I'm not sorry it has finisihed. But it would be wrong to say that it hasn't been a part of my life for the last nine years!

Jamie, you singled me out, and so I shall return the favour. You are in a feedback loop of self delusion; probably caused by watching BB too much. I am not middle class, but from a working class background. I aim to improve myself, not by watching BB, but by doing useful things with my time: reading, watching films and documentaries. Sorry if that galls you. Justifying your viewing of such garbage as some kind of societal tool for self improvement adequately sums up my reason for hating BB so much in the first place. What a woeful excuse for mispent time. Calling us snobs for disliking idiocy is both inaccurate and idiotic. Go figure. Also, I think my use of 'Excresence' is perfectly apt. I mourn for your loss but as Justin blogged, Channel 5 may yet offer you hope of many viewing hours for self improvement.

I have found over the years that the people that have appeared on BB are so far from real that the programme has become silly and borring. Even my Girl Friend, who was an extream BB watcher 2 years ago, will not give it the time of day now. The series is far too long. I am glad that BB is going, and now C4 can put some of the money thats wasted on BB into other shows.

I'm sure Channel 5 will pick it up, given the chance.

I agree, I can't understand why anyone would choose to watch such rubbish when there is always something better on. I like to be entertained by someone who is qualified for the job. And if there's really nothing else on, read a book!

i felt a great wave of relief as i read your comments on big Brother. Over the years i have felt increasingly resentful of this program, as my refusal to watch it has not stopped it encroaching into my life. Like an overflowing drain from a neihbour's garden it became so entrenched in British popular culture that it was impossible to avoid. Worse than that i believe it began the spate of 'celebrity' junk magazines that now dominate the newsagents and the imaginations of many school leavers. Fingers crossed that channel four can replace it with something that may stimulate some of the millions of dead brain cells that it has caused over the past decade.

Alison, the "Greek Chorus" is a bandwagon intent on self-importantly and scoffingly condemning Big Brother. Remove it from the screen because it makes you feel uncomfortable ? It is inescapably the case that BB is a mirror held up to much of today's British society - we should value this opportunity to watch, learn and to seek to be the change we want to see.

There is no point paying any regard to the "proud" respondent "Thomas" - (extraordinary use of the word 'excrescence' by the way) - since he has never even watched a single episode - rather a weak stance from which to judge, wouldn't you say ?

Which is worse - such snobbish middle class judgmentalism or an episode of Big Brother ? I know which I enjoy more.

I echo your thoughts. It will slide down the pan with a happy flush. Just a pity they have to complete the series with more airtime before we hear the sastisfying whooosh as the reality excrement slips into the C4 sewer of hasbeen series! Heaven forbid that they surge back as reruns. Is that possible?

This ending is long overdue. I really could not stomach Big Brother. It reflected, so precisely, all that is wrong with British television. Vacuous, banal, and catering to the a very narrow age group. Sadly, I don't expect much better quality programming to replace it. It is, after all, C4. I suppose they can always show Friends or The Simpsons over and over. Oh wait....

As an avid viewer of BB I would like to point out that I watch it because it is what it is- entertainment! It amuses me. Am I some kind of ignorant lumpen prole with an IQ less than 10? Surprisingly, no! I play Chess to a very high level, sing and dance in Amateur musicals, am keen on politics and current affairs, reading and classical music. I am a professional person who earns a reasonable income. I am a mature divorced father of one child. My point is that i watch BB because it makes me laugh like a train!! Its not meant to be taken so seriously. I know and you know that these people are rather needy and desperate, but its all innocent fun- a gameshow. Its great TV. I will mourn its passing as i miss mastermind or Sale of the Century or Candid camera.

Other staples of British TV like Eastenders and Corrie seem immune from criticism. Why is that when they are just bleak and depressing? BB does what it says on the tin- watch an hour of highlights a couple of times a week and do not take things so seriously I would suggest. And please- do not be such a snob about it!

How sad that so many have such a negative perception of humans behaving in a very human fashion- when I did watch it I saw warmth, humour, generosity, independence and a lot to admire as well as very normal tedium, nastiness and ambition. I learn't from it, and it challenged my educated and intellectual prejudices in a unique way. Perhaps Thomas who never watched but feels he has a valid opinion on BBs demerits would have gained more if he had challenged his preconceptions.

very well said I could not agree more

Well said Alison. You have perfectly articulated how I feel about Big Brother. I am proud to say that I only saw a few seconds, over all the years this excresence was broadcast, always by accident, when searching for another programme; however, the few seconds I was subjected to on these rare occasions made me want to vomit, and cry, at the same time. I always thought of Ted Hughes' call for a counteroffensive for the human spirit, although the exact words fail me, Big Brother represented its polar opposite. Good Riddance