Big Brother on the couch

People watch reality TV for the fireworks, the back-stabbing and the bullying, says the man behind Big Brother. But would he let his own daughter on the show?

LOVE IT OR LOATHE it, and very few take the middle ground on it, Big Brotherhas been a landmark and a phenomenon in international television, and a pioneer in the first wave of the tsunami that is reality TV. Originating in the Netherlands, it has been franchised to dozens of countries around the world. Every year, the producers of the various versions assemble for a convention where they show each other clips and exchange ideas.

"It's our version of the United Nations," jokes Philip Edgar-Jones, the executive producer of the British Big Brother, which returns for a ninth season on Channel 4 in June. Controversial from the outset, the British version has often been described as outrageous, but it is coy compared to the Australian edition, which has cameras in the showers and regularly features full-frontal nudity.

"There was a massive outcry after it started in Dubai because a man and a woman held hands, and it was shut down in no time," Edgar-Jones notes. "Then again, the South American versions are all about sexuality and nudity, and the Scandinavian ones are virtually pornographic. The Russian one seems to be all about fighting. At the beginning, it was said that our programme was all about trying to get people to have sex. Actually, that's the last thing people want to see in Big Brother because it's not a beautiful, romantic moment. It's a grubby encounter under some sheets while other people are in the room."

We met at the Celtic Media Festival in Galway last week, where Edgar-Jones gave a presentation aimed primarily at 12-19-year-olds. It was titled From Tea Boy to Top TV Exec, which succinctly summarises his career. Now 41, he left his native Edinburgh for London to pursue his interest in journalism, working as a freelance sub-editor on magazines and as a runner on the provocative Channel 4 series, The Word.

He landed a job "out of the blue" as a presenter on the fast-paced Channel 4 film show Moviewatchwith Johnny Vaughan. "I did the first series," he says, "but I was so shockingly bad that I didn't survive. You wouldn't remember me from it because they cut me out most of the time." He was a researcher on Channel 4's The Big Breakfast, in its heyday when Chris Evans was the presenter, and worked his way up to producing the series. He went on to produce The Word, The Jack Docherty Showand The Priory. Then Endemol, the Dutch company that spawned Big Brother, appointed him as producer of the British version.

"It was very much of its time," he says. "It coincided with more and more people having internet access, and it became a very hot story online. That's what made it." The show found its first controversial contestant in Nick Bateman, dubbed "Nasty Nick" by the media. Suddenly, substantial numbers of office staff here and in Britain were glued to his exploits online when they were supposed to be working.

IN THOSE EARLY days, Big Brothercontestants didn't know what to expect and were not as aware of the ever-present cameras as more recent entrants who clearly have been performing for the camera. "I spent a night in the Big Brotherhouse when we had our staff party there after the third series," Edgar-Jones says. "After about an hour, you completely forget about the cameras. You can imagine what it's like when you're in there for weeks on end, cut off from the rest of the world. People have a different approach to the show now. A generation has grown up with reality TV and they're much more knowing about the whole thing, much more upfront about their motivation for going on the show."

A few contestants have fared very well from the exposure, among them Irish entrants Brian Dowling, a Ryanair steward who won, and Anna Nolan, a runner-up, and both have forged careers as TV presenters. Most have "sunk back into oblivion", as Edgar-Jones puts it. "That has to be tough. I think it is worse to have had a bit of fame and lost it than never to have had it at all. When we sit down with each potential housemate, we try to get to the heart of why they want to be on Big Brother. Most want to be famous and make some money. Then we talk them through the downside. We advise them that being famous won't necessarily make you rich. Nor does it mean that people will like you. People will feel free to say anything they like, good or bad, when they see you on the street. You might not be able to get a proper job because of things you did on the show. We want to make it clear to them that it can close more doors than it opens."

Nevertheless, close on 12,000 people have applied for the 2008 series. Once again, there were auditions in Dublin, but without the media hoopla of earlier years. Are the Irish losing interest? "It was different this year because so many people are now applying online," Edgar-Jones says, "but we got a very good response from Dublin. A couple of Irish people are still in our mix at this stage.

"It takes months for us to cast Big Brotherbecause we do police checks and medical tests before choosing the final contestants, and they have to see two psychologists, who have the power of veto if they think people can't cope with it. And we have an after-care system for them when they come out of the house."

Contrary to media reports, the show's offshoot Celebrity Big Brotherhas not been cancelled. "It might come back," says Edgar-Jones. "We're resting it this year. It would have been a bit mad to have done it this year after what happened last year." He is referring to the furore when former Big Brotherwinner Jade Goody was accused of racial slurs towards a rival contestant, Indian actress Shilpa Shetty. Even Gordon Brown became embroiled in the controversy.

"It's very interesting being at the centre of a media storm," says Edgar-Jones. "I'll tell you the genesis of it. Jade's boyfriend Jack called Shilpa Shetty the c-word, which, of course, we're not allowed to broadcast. An Indian journalist reported that Jack called her 'a Paki', which he didn't. Gordon Brown was in India at the time and asked to comment on it. Without having seen it, he condemned it, and of course he would if there was any racism involved. The whole thing went mental. There were Sky Newshelicopters buzzing over the house, and it was all over the media. But what was actually happened in the house did not match with what was being reported outside." Didn't Jade Goody make several references to Shilpa Shetty as Shilpa Poppadom? "There definitely was bullying going on, and an element of racially offensive stuff. It was not overtly racist, but language used to undermine people. It was more about class, and that's where it came from."

I PUT IT TO Edgar-Jones that reality TV has become the equivalent of the gladiatorial arenas in ancient Rome, with so many successors to Big Brother- from Pop Idolto The X Factorto The Apprentice- where entrants are routinely humiliated for the amusement of the viewer.

"They're all the same programme, slightly repackaged," he says. "They all involve people getting on or not getting on with each other. People watch them to see the human interaction, the fireworks, the back-stabbing, the bullying." I mention that I heard British documentary director Paul Watson - another guest speaker at the Celtic Media Festival - on Pat Kenny's radio show last week when Watson said his programmes have a serious purpose, whereas the likes of Big Brotherand Wife Swaphave no contribution to make.

"He's said that a few times," Edgar-Jones responds. "I can't speak for Wife Swapbecause we don't make it. Big Brotherwas set up as a game show, but it does give you insights into people's behaviour and how they operate, and the viewer relates to different people on it. We're not setting out here to change people's view of the world. Paul Watson obviously is a brilliant filmmaker who has something to say, whereas our show is a work of entertainment."

Edgar-Jones believes there is "a lot of snobbery in the media" regarding Big Brother. "It's aimed at younger viewers and it's not meant to appeal to older, middle-class men. I would say that, in terms of the way we cut it, it's much less manipulative than a lot of documentary films. We don't cut things out of sequence. We don't put an authorial voice over it. We just present it as it happens.

"Over the past few years, telly audiences have gone down. Young people are using media in a very different way than we did. They have so much choice and want to get their entertainment when they want it and not when the schedulers decide they can have it. The future probably is a more fragmented media market, with a lot of homemade stuff being bigger online first and then maybe transferring to TV. For years, television was the preserve of the Oxbridge graduate, but now it's becoming more democratised. I hope that's where it's going to go."

Towards the end of our interview, Edgar-Jones happens to mention that he and his wife have a nine-year-old daughter. If, in eight or nine years, Big Brotheris still on air and his daughter wanted to be a contestant, how would he react? "It would be her choice," he says, "but I would advise her not to." He has "collected anecdotally my own data over the years I've been doing this show", and noticed some striking trends. "I found, for example, that 80-90 per cent of all women who apply - and when you include men, around 70 per cent of all applicants - have absent fathers or never met their fathers. I think that applies to a lot of modern-day celebrities. They didn't get that recognition when they were kids, and they need to get it now."