The Barton’s Place Television Review

Your Real View on the fake world of Telly

Date:- September 1, 2006

Big Brother?

So we end another Big Brother series, thank **** for that. See, I censored myself, how clever. Which is more than can be said for those monkeys at Channel 4.

When I studied GCSE English, we had to choose a book to read. I read George Orwell’s classic “1984” which is a chilling tale of how a government becomes totalitarian, installs cameras to monitor their subjects’ every move and controls their subjects’ lives. To reinforce this the monitors or “Big Brother” as they are known plaster “Big Brother is watching you” on posters. This chilling view prevented a future from happening and is one of the greatest books ever written.

At the start of this century a clever idea involved in which ten people would live in one such controlled environment. The nation became hooked, we loved it. The creation and modern day interpretation of this classic theory was more than interesting, it was enthralling.

Seven years later and it has degenerated into the piece of rubbish that no-one in their right mind would watch. Granted they need to make it interesting. Wasn’t it interesting enough?

Now they have to find every misfit under the sun and cram as many of them into the house as they could. In the first one you had a builder, a farmer, a city banker etc… now you have porn actresses and people with tourettes. Try telling me that every female bar two and (there were about ten) in there having breast implants represents an average demographic of the population.

They have turned a classic theory into bad television with salaciousness, thick people and the fame hungry.

Still though, I’m never watching it again so what do I care?

Box Observations

I was watching the Box (the music channel) in the early hours of the morning and I saw the most marvellous thing. A chap and a lady were signing the songs. Somebody please tell me if I am perhaps a tad cruel with this remark, but I hardly think that signing and mild gyrations on the part of the signer is going to communicate the vast power of music to the deaf.

If I was deaf I would be pleased that they were trying but I’d probably be in bed at that time anyway. It’s not as if the noise from the local pub is going to keep me awake at night.

In my opinion, top marks for effort, it’s an extremely considerate and thoughtful thing to do but, nothing for practicality.

Check back in the coming days for future issues.