Passions: No one else will admit to watching, but I loved the new Big Brother series

This year’s reboot, which focused on ordinary people, was brilliant

The Big Brother contestants who featured in the reboot of the series. Picture: ITV

This week a new series of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here started, but last Friday night also saw the finale of Big Brother, which first premiered in 2000 on Channel 4.

The original reality show was cancelled in the UK five years ago, but 2023’s relaunch saw ITV taking the format back to its origins, trying to cast ordinary people instead of the influencers, notoriety-seekers and the assorted obnoxious show-offs which populated the later series.

And this time, I think they got it right. I was glued from start to finish.

Watching a group of different personalities from all walks of life locked in a house as a social experiment is fascinating, voyeuristic and even, I would venture, educational.

But it is a guilty pleasure. I was definitely alone in my rabid opinions of the housemates as no one I know has admitted to watching.

Unlike previous series there were, thankfully, no physical fights nor did the police have to be called, but this time the tension came from microaggressions. If someone objects to another touching their food, is it because of hygiene, or is there a deeper bigotry going on?

If a male housemate doesn’t happen to get along with the women in the house, is it just a clash of personalities, or can some other inference be drawn?

There was a bigger scandal after the most popular contestant emerged only to have offensive Twitter posts found on her feed. But in the end, the public voted for a winner in an unpredictable finale.

My favourite was the pageant queen who had fielded a lot of the abuse in the house with remarkable grace.

An engagingly sweet recent immigrant from China was the bookies’ choice from the start, but only finished fourth.

A self-proclaimed posh Tory defied the odds by coming in third and the only Scottish participant, a brash Glaswegian dancer, evolved from a mean girl in the first weeks to gain second place.

But the British public preferred Jordan, the instigator of a confusing love triangle romance. From Scunthorpe, with a self-taught Downton Abbey accent, his sardonic one-liners stole the show.

He didn’t disappoint when told he’d won the £100,000 prize. His response was: “Now I can pay my Council Tax.”

Kirsty McLuckie is Property Editor of The Scotsman