24th August:

Rejoice one and all, for there will be no 'Celebrity Big Brother' in 2008. However, it would appear that there may be a series again in 2009, so we can't get the champagne and bunting out just yet.

Julian Bellamy, Head of Programmes at Channel 4, commented that giving the series a year off would "benefit the format in the longer term as it will have a bit of breathing space". This is sad news indeed - he feels that the show has a long term future.

Let's be clear about one thing - I am not naive. Channel 4 needs to make profit and all of the Big Brother formats are popular. Unfortunately, however, they are also crap. Tough call.

Quality is an inherently subjective concept, but I'm a little tired of being accused of intellectual snobbery by those who think Big Brother is just a bit of harmless televisual fluff. "You don't have to watch it", I am told. Correct. I do not have to watch it, and I consciously don't. But simply choosing to ignore something doesn't make it OK.

The phrase "dumbing down" appears increasingly in certain sections of the media today. From newspapers opting for the shock headline and the throwaway sound-bite, to school exams and higher education degrees getting easier, the intelligent folk believe that standards are on the slide. And I think the point is hard to argue. People's minds grow from exposure to the unfamiliar. I may not have enjoyed studying Shakespeare at school nor did I enjoy my father making me read a broadsheet newspaper every day when I was in my early teens, but I'm probably a more knowledgeable and well-rounded individual as a result of both. Call it snobbery if you wish, but I have a sneaky desire to make everyone who watches Big Brother sit through an edition of Newsnight straight afterwards as an antidote. I'm guessing that the percentage of the population who already watch both anyway is fairly small.

Television can entertain without being stupid or cruel. Not everything on TV has to be worthy and high-brow, but Big Brother tells us nothing about ourselves other than the fact that we are pack animals with an inherent interest in the lives of other people.

And Desmond Morris aleady did that in 1967.