The Cultural Tastes of the First Big Brother Eleven
The Big Brother house was a necessarily sterile place where cultural pursuits were kept to a minimum. But whether on purpose or through subtle manipulation the Big Brother Eleven became a microcosm of the current state of Popular and High culture in the UK. Don’t believe me? Lets take this one step at a time . .
A few weeks in, on the completion of a mini-task the group are given the chance of seeing any film. Any film at all, the entirety of film history available. The lads, predictably start suggesting horror films. Someone offers ‘that new film by Jim Carrey’ (which would have tested the resources of Brother Big, not exactly being out then) – until someone chimes in with ‘Happy Gilmore’, the Adam Sandler golf classic. A few votes and the suggestion is carried. Popular cinema selected over high brow – hmm – has anyone seen this week’s box office list? Later, we found an example of how the public tends to view television. Clamouring as they were for ‘East is East’, Big Brother decided that perhaps they would be more invigorated by the works of Bobby Davro, paralleling the attitude of the two main TV channels on a Saturday night. In other words, ‘We know you want to see something half decent, but we’ll put this on because you’ll probably watch it anyway . . .’ Born out by the fact that all of the housemates stay for the first episode on the tape, and after the girls went to bed, the boys viewed the other three, taking the attitude that watching anything is better than watching nothing at all.
The choice of house literature, although only glimpsed at, was also pretty significant, taking in many of the big sellers of the past few years – Thomas Harris, ‘Hannibal’ and the Chinese family epic ‘Wild Swans’ snubbing Seamus Heaney and the rest of his Whitbread colleagues.
Perhaps most interesting are the musical choices. Music is of course not usually allowed in the Big Brother house, the only comfort being Anna’s guitar, or what appears to be the soundtrack album, pumped into the house on Friday nights (loved on the first Friday ignored by the last). Understandably, music does not otherwise get mentioned. We’d find out that Craig loves the middle of the road delights of Rod Stewart and Phil Collins, which is probably the musical taste of ten percent of the viewing audience. Then, in the final few days, the remaining three housemates chose the record they would most like to hear after ten weeks without contact from the outside world. Craig decides his thing is ‘I was only joking’ by Rod Stewart, because it reminds him of being at school. Darren chooses the new version of ‘Good Life’ by Inner City, which reminds him of his kids dancing.. Now Anna. Anna, the lesbian ex-nun with a folksy guitar talent who one might expect to chime in with something acoustic chooses – ‘Together in Electric Dreams’ by Georgio Morodor with Phil Oakey. Oddly enough it kind of sticks out. A track which was created for a film that no one has seen since 1984. The least expected song from nowhere. Some personal resonance here. It’s in my top ten songs as well. And more often than not it has the same reaction for me as for her. She cried, her face awash with memories of club visits of the past and friends she’s missed, her housemates reaction underlining just how alone she feels. Probably the most touching moment of the entire series. Just a pity Craig spoilt the thing by laughing through it. If you can dig out the film, it’s worth it. A touching love triangle between a guy, his girl and a computer. It’s years ahead of its time. Think ‘Being John Malkovitch’ with Eighties production values.
UPDATE! In the aftermath of Big Brother, the Eleven have quietly been making a name for themselves in various corners of the media, but in ways no one would have predicted. Nicola releases a single, which reaches the heady heights of the low seventies in the charts. Anna appears in a catwalk show, and the promised folk singing career is nowhere to be seen (although she was good on TFI ). Craig doesn’t seem to know what to do with himself, although award shows, Ready Steady Cook, A Question Of Sport, and book signings is a start. Also signing is Clare who is also introducing a review programme about Clubs in the middle of the night. Darren is spending time with his kids. Andy co-‘presents’ an entertainment review show on Channel 5 with Lisa Rogers who he seems to have taken a real shine to him having already appeared on ‘The Big Breakfast’ and the inexplicably awful ‘Frontal’ with him. Mel is looking at her options, but the cover of Marie Clare was probably a cool place to start. Nick is doing what I suppose we all expected and is appearing in as many interviews as possible to improve his profile Caggy has recorded a single and turned up to as many award shows as she can. Tom is almost modelling. Sada seems has already written a book about being a ‘woman’. Didn’t really doubt you were anything else there girl . . . eeeeeerrrrrrr . .
UPDATE! It’s now six months since our friends left the house and about time we assessed their real cultural impact now that the ultimate manufactured pop band has finally made the chart implode upon itself. Sada’s book on flirting was published. Andy is apparently bicycle touring Oz. Dear Caggy was last seen on daytime talk show ‘Esther’ and probably still trying to get that darn single released. Nicola’s singing career . . .well calling the Big Breakfast won’t do you any good luv. Nick appeared in his own late night game show ‘Trust Me’ which had the distinction of actually being quite good. Clare appeared in panto. Thomas is learning to be club DJ. Mel has her own Big Brother style show on E4. Darren became a UN rep for about three minutes. Anna is presumably fishing for projects (and with any look succeeding after her too professional showing on TFI Friday with a nervous Mel), appearing as a nun in Comic Relief, and slagging the whole Big Brother concept on Channel 4 shows about reality TV. Craig (errr) got a 5 album deal and has since released a charity record. Now seen most mornings tooling about a house in the ‘burbs with other strapping young men and Lowrie Turner . . .
UPDATE! It’s now almost a year since Big Brother One began, new series coming up, and all is quiet on the front of the ex-big brotherites. Most have disappeared back into relative obscurity, popping only now and then when reality tv is being question. Or introducing reality TV in the case of Mel’s ‘Chained’. Anna’s going to be presenting a new show soon with Davina McCall for the BBC Saturday night line-up. She inevitably seems to be the most visible, for as well as appearing on a Channel 4 documentary giving her representation on the show a pasting, she’s done stand-in nun work on the Comic Relief ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme’ special. Ah the CRBB – to be honest we thought of creating a page, but decided that it pretty much deconstructed itself, what with everyone’s endless TV reviews . . .
UPDATE! Tom and Clare. TOM AND CLARE?!?
UPDATE! Actually more of a greetings to anyone who’s visited the page from the Google Directory or one of the other Open Directory source. Hello. We know that if you’ve read this far down, our English is at least intelligible, especially considering that you’ve just read a bunch of things you already know.
UPDATE! This strangely popular page gets its first mention at an internet newsgroup, the UK BIG BROTHER Anna Nolan Club. Believe me the new version of this site has given us a better appreciation of how hard it is to create a website. But it’s always good to be a bit enigmatic sometimes . . .
UPDATE! Still no Big Brother Two page? We suspect writers elsewhere are doing a better job. There is a feeling with BB2 however that we are looking in on damaged good. The magic isn’t the same. There have been some fun moments, but overall the players seem to care that little bit too much about there public image. And how can Paul still be there?
UPDATE! “Nick stands in the corner looking at the floor.” Jon Ronson writes amazing article in The Guardian magazine.
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