![Big Brother presenters AJ Odudu and Will Best](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/tv/2023/10/08/TELEMMGLPICT000351272124_16968062094810_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqNJjoeBT78QIaYdkJdEY4CnGTJFJS74MYhNY6w3GNbO8.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Big Brother, review: Fun first episode forecasts fireworks and at least an attempt at authenticity
On first impressions ITV have done a good job at picking a broad cross-section of 16 participants
![Big Brother presenters AJ Odudu and Will Best](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/tv/2023/10/08/TELEMMGLPICT000351272124_16968062094810_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqNJjoeBT78QIaYdkJdEY4CnGTJFJS74MYhNY6w3GNbO8.jpeg?imwidth=680)
When the first series of Big Brother launched on Channel 4 in the summer of 2000, it felt like a genuinely interesting social experiment.
Eleven housemates were isolated from the outside world in a custom-built house full of cameras and evicted one by one as the weeks progressed. Won by affable builder Craig Phillips, the first series also featured “Nasty” Nick Bateman, a City broker who was booted out early by producers for trying to manipulate votes among his fellow housemates. It was a stark, fresh format for a brave new millennium, and seemed to be asking semi-profound questions about the human condition in extremis.
By the sixth series in 2005, however, things had become tawdry. Two housemates may or may not have had sex in a pool, while another one was filmed apparently pleasuring herself with a wine bottle in the garden. Crass headlines and overnight fame seemed to be the housemates’ goal. Ofcom’s switchboard melted.
Big Brother moved to Channel 5 but was axed in 2018. And now it’s back. ITV’s reboot of the show launched with a 90-minute special last night, presented by AJ Odudu and Will Best. ITV execs have promised that the show will “make reality [TV] ‘real’ again” and return to its “raw” roots. Coming from the channel that broadcasts the glossy Love Island, this is quite a claim. In a world of TikTok influencers and Cup-A-Soup celebrities, is this even possible?
We’ll obviously see. But on first impressions ITV have done a good job at picking a broad cross-section of 16 participants.
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Among the usual Big Brother fare – Chanelle, a 29 year-old Welsh dental therapist, Paul, a 23 year-old scouser with an eye for the ladies, and Olivia, a dancer from Glasgow – we’ve got fabulous Farida, a 50 year-old “proud Muslim” from Wolverhampton who will continue to pray five times a day, Yinrun, a customer support agent originally from Shanghai, and Kerry, whose multiple sclerosis was showing no sign of holding her back.
It’s a good mix, with the requisite potential for fireworks. We’ve already been warned of the starkly opposing political views in the house. Trish from Luton is “very very left wing” while Henry, one of the two token poshos, says he’d love to have a Martini with Boris Johnson. “People who don’t like the Royal family should leave the country,” he adds. Popcorn at the ready, folks.
The house itself has evolved slightly. Set over two floors, it’s halfway between a multi-coloured Habitat showroom and the house in Disney’s Encanto. Shades are advised (as they were for Odudu’s shiny blue catsuit). She and Best were competent presenters, even if their links were slightly cheesy, but the real star was the nicely malevolent Big Brother, who – as ever – we met in voice only.
Plot lines were already emerging, largely thanks to Big Brother’s mean streak. Poor Jenkin, a Welsh barman and bingo caller (“I’m not the only gay in the village [but] I’m the best one”), has to go without hot water for 24 hours, watched his suitcase get blown up and has attracted the wrath of Olivia for claiming they haven’t gelled. And Olivia seems like the kind of person you don’t want to cross.
Overlapping cliques were already forming. Matty and Tom compared perms, Henry and fellow toff Jordan compared velvet jackets (“I feel like he’s a long-lost cousin,” said Jordan), Tom and Paul shared a hot tub, while Channelle, Noky (Miss Universe Great Britain 2022) and Hallie bonded.
Do we really need Big Brother back? Of course not. Raw and real? Obviously not. But this was fun and is at least striving for a degree of authenticity while also knowing it has to entertain. “I don’t want to kick off on the first night,” said Olivia forebodingly. “There’s no escape.” There certainly isn’t.