Big Brother

I don't know why but as I have spare time on my hands(not really)I have clutter to remove from the pc, files to burn, e-mails to write(There is not enough time in the day to do it all)and I have just wasted time trying to get back onto some websites that I visit because I hit a wrong button(still do not know which one)on the keyboard which thanks to a security program I have on here managed to clear all of my cookies and as I write this I think this could also mean access to my blog has been messed up.

It was but I fixed it as you can see because you are reading this...so the panic is over for now!

They say don't write passwords or user names down...that may be true if you live or work with many people but if you live alone write them down somewhere, you are bound to forget or have an unforeseen problem and find yourself up a creek without a paddle...

Now, I am unsure how many countries take reality programmes on their television networks. I suspect best part do as many programmes have their format copied or adapted to suit another audience. Its always been especially true of quiz shows...Deal Or No Deal, The Weakest Link and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire come to mind. But if you go back into television history the most popular of this genre have come across from the States, one in particular being the Price Is Right. Mentioning that one I am probably not helping myself in my criticism of Big Brother as it proves that the public will often fall for the lowest common denominator as a participant or watcher.

Television for all its value in bringing news, drama, comedy, education and culture to the masses has to also be a diversion, to offer escapism and therefore I guess we will have conflict especially if it is being provided by the public broadcaster. You may see the worth of a nature series fronted by Sir David Attenborough or an Opera which many of the population cannot afford or would be able to attend so to offer it to the masses is a great gesture and a rightful thing to do but you ignore what the public want at your peril(I'm not helping my own argument here)
If no one is watching and in a multi channel environment it is more of a problem, who can blame the BBC as an example(living in the British Isles)having to sometimes be populist.

What we like in entertainment is personal and I suppose in the end I have to accept that some things that I enjoy others will dislike and vice versa.

Was television of a higher quality and more creative in its early days? Were we happier with less choice? Was there as much rubbish back then but we noticed it less and we were enthralled by this new medium?

If society had been different back then and someone had suggested Big Brother, would it have been produced then?

I suspect the closest programme from memory that I could suggest to being similar to Big Brother was the documentary series on BBC television called The Family where camera's followed an extended family through its daily life and how they reacted with each other through weddings, births, birthdays, deaths and all the things that make up our lives. But that was as near as possible to showing a family in a genuine environment and not manipulating the situations and it was only approx 1 hour per week.

So we have Channel 4 who are talked of in similar tones as BBC2 or the new digital BBC television channels BBC3 and BBC4 and somehow(because of its original remit and the way commercial revenue was raised)is often called a public broadcaster.

Now we have Big Brother and I believe that we are into series 7 in the UK. Now I am torn in that if I do not watch, those that do could say that I do not know what I am talking about and if I do watch then I am guilty of becoming one of the audience.

I know enough to comment but what I hear and having flicked across channels and seeing perhaps a few minutes here and a few minutes there I d know that I could not sit and watch it for hours, days and weeks. Perhaps it does bring out my prejudices and preconceived ideas, maybe I am a snob...I don't know(at least I question my motives)but the trouble is...

There is not one person I can say that I like, that I would like to know, that I would want to spend time with, they all seem to be the extreme examples of society.

Though, I suspect as the series keeps coming back the makers have looked for characters that are more outrageous.

No one seems to be able to express themselves without an expletive and whether for or against the use of bad language every other word that is uttered seems to be an expletive of the most extreme. What I find amusing or strange is that as an example(and this is probably what prompted me to write this piece)I could not find anything to watch on terrestrial television and for various reasons had to wait before I could go onto satellite television because I was using it for the radio...so I caught BB for about 5 minutes.

I could not take any more.

Regardless of the behaviour, just using the language as an example...the person being evicted every other word was f*** or a combination of and as this person left the house she even used a word rarely heard on any broadcaster the "C" word but because this all they know it falls out of mouths without any realisation that they are doing it. And the craziest situation is that Channel 4 will broadcast all this language. Much of it is recorded perhaps but we've heard the words(unbleeped)and then suddenly they'll say "We're live please do not swear" but the contestants continue to do it anyway. And as we have just heard dozens of such words seconds before going live, I cannot see the difference?

Wish I could remember where I heard or read it but something was said about this in the last few days. BB is recorded or on delay so the channel has control over how much we see and hear and is edited so it falls within guidelines but that is a weak excuse IMHO.

What I do not understand therefore is the double standards. A live event where someone unexpectedly swears and is warned against doing so again and may apologise, the broadcaster will be fined or get a warning and being caught in such circumstances may come off far worse which seems unfair and a case of double standard.

In a wider context, sometimes words that are considered "Bad" can add something when making a point but using it less means it has more of an affect.

Is it a phase or a trend that will burn itself out or continue to become more outrageous in the future?

Jan Ravens(impersonator/actress)best known in the UK for her work on *Dead Ringers, recently explained how easy it once was to make television look outrageous by coming up with ideas or situations where you could put a character and it was fun because it was unlikely to happen but now television is often doing things it would seem unlikely to have ever considered and is becoming a parody of itself.

*Dead Ringers now a television series but originally heard for years on BBC Radio 4 where popular personalities and people in the news are impersonated.