LUKE MARSDEN: Big Brother was a true social experiment in its prime

You may think you’ve stepped back in time and you’re gearing up for a summer of watching people sleep but alas Big Brother isn’t back in its normal format.

Davina McCall and Rylan Clark-Neal are re-living some of the best episodes in BB history over on E4 Sunday to Thursday.

It looks unlikely that my year (right) will be featured which is, of course, a travesty, but they do only have 10 episodes and a 20-year back catalogue to choose from, so I can (almost) forgive them.

Watching the first ever series of BB in 2020 is like entering a reality TV museum, I’ve spent more on my kitchen than they must’ve done the entire house. Watching them smoke inside of the BB house is a strange thing to view and jokes they made probably would land someone in Twitter jail these days. I’ve been asked a lot this week on what I think Big Brother’s legacy will be – in its prime the show was a true social experiment, but ironically throughout lockdown we’ve all had a taste of being Big Brother housemates (for some of us BB was like a warm-up!) the only difference being there are no cameras in most people’s living rooms – I hope!

Without doubt BB was the juggernaut for a new genre of television, it provided some of the last two decades’ most controversial moments and to this day is still the most complained about TV show but watching it back years later, there’s no doubt in my mind that Big Brother will continue to shape culture for decades to come.

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