Big Brother Summer

Well it looks like our magnificent summer has been and gone, for those of you who missed it, it was on June 24th at 3.24pm.

Once again the end of yet another summer has been marked in Borehamwood by the Big Brother (BB) Circus packing up and leaving town and as always, they did it with a bang. I would be a liar if I said it didn’t annoy me having to calm down my screaming baby at 11pm Friday night, when he was impolitely woken up by the spectacular firework display that was triggered when BB announced its latest winner.

Even though I am not a follower of this particular show, I do support what BB and other similar TV shows have done for the reputation of the studios. Elstree Studio’s historical links to the film industry and its continued success in the Television business is something I feel we should be very proud of. Unlike many other industries, the television industry is a relatively clean, green and non-polluting business that adds real value to an area, bringing with it many jobs and millions of pounds into the local economy.

Although I have never understood why people come from miles around to cheer (or boo as the case may be!) for someone they don’t really know, I will miss the carnival style atmosphere they bring to our town as the banner holding BB fans make their weekly Friday afternoon pilgrimage down Shenley Road. Watching this spectacle of the eviction “lynch mob” heading towards the studios, I have often wondered if crowd mentality on eviction nights has any similarity to medieval times, when large groups of people would be attracted by the morbid anticipation of a public hanging?

As Channel four have announced they will be resting the celebrity version of the BB show for this year, I guess it will be next summer before we have to go through it all again...?