Just in case anybody’s still watching, this week it’s the 10th anniversary of the start of Big Brother. Yup, it’s finally here, following the inevitable build-up and a series which started out potentially interesting but has turned out to be one of the dullest so far – and quite aside from the realisation that this means the original series of Big Brother began in July (i.e we didn’t have to put up with it for the entire summer back in those days…..) the celebrations – which have seen the reappearance of many old faces from houses gone by – have finally provided a reason to watch.

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The past week has seen the likes of Michelle Bass reappear to recreate her Pie Jesu performance from series five, series four’s Federico challenging ‘Noreen’ to a gymkhana (while at the same time accidentally letting slip that Michael Jackson had died – cue consternation among the housemates who were probably the only people left in the world who didn’t know), Craig and Makosi from series six challenging Siavash to live in a box, and series eight winner Brian Belo – well, just being Brian really.

The arrival of all the old faces does however prove two things; one, that this series is the televisual equivalent of reading a rather dull book in which nothing actually happens until page 200, and when it does you’re left wondering whether it was worth the wait or was in fact a massive anti-climax (which I couldn’t help thinking about Big Brother despite enjoying seeing all the former housemates again); and two, that past housemates were indeed more interesting and endearing than the previous bunch. OK, well some of them were anyway. There are hundreds more out there who have had a brief brush with Big Brother, disappeared back into the obscurity from whence they came and would doubtless produce frowns and badly scratched heads if they were wheeled out for another crack at one of their former tasks. I would name names here, but I can’t actually remember any of them.

It does leave me wondering however how many of the current crop could potentially be brought back should Big Brother limp on to a 15th, or even 20th, anniversary. Angel could perhaps return to challenge a future housemate at fasting and egg-eating, or Sree could be drafted in once again to see if anybody else could possibly out-whinge him.

Otherwise, I see no other reason to re-introduce anybody. What does this say about the current series, exactly? That the housemates aren’t as good as they once were? Well, maybe that’s not the case. There are some interesting personalities in there who could have made this series a good one – but it somehow seems as though they’re not really doing anything particularly interesting or memorable, except quarrel, moan, and stand around and look pretty. And it takes more than that to have post Big Brother longevity.

No matter. Friday night’s show will apparently bring with it a fresh crop of housemates – but hang on a second, don’t they normally do that earlier in the series? Obviously we must hold out hope for some interesting personalities to liven things up a bit – but part of me can’t help thinking it’s a case of too little, too late…..