The curtain is finally coming down on Britain’s longest running unreality show. Now in its 13th year, it has suffered a catastrophic collapse in ratings as viewers have become bored and deserted in droves.
Once hailed as an exciting social experiment, whose sole purpose was ‘education, education, education’, the series has descended into little more than a repellent freak show.
New Labour has demeaned its contestants and audience alike, coarsened our culture, debased living standards, promoted a climate of bullying and exhibitionism and lowered Britain’s standing around the world. It has become a byword for corruption and incompetence, obsessed with sex, greed and racism.
Back in 1997, more than 13million people were glued to the programme, which was hailed for its eclectic, ground-breaking cast.
Housemates included an effete public schoolboy, a former ship’s steward, a dour son of the manse, a blind man and his dog, a gay public relations man and his exotic Brazilian boyfriend, and a scary, former convent schoolgirl who quickly became known as the Wicked Witch.
New Labour was the first series to broadcast round the clock, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Unlike its close rival, Big Brother, it wasn’t just the housemates being filmed.
More than four million CCTV cameras were erected all over Britain so that every move of the audience could be captured, too, and used in evidence against people putting out their dustbins on the wrong day.
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I thought, from the headline, this would be about Karlheinz Schrieber but I guess Mulroney’s nemesis is old news…