NO LOVE LOST
Millennials think Love Island is wild…wait till they see the sex, booze and bust-ups on Big Brother, says Kate Lawler
WHEN Kate Lawler won Big Brother 3 it proved to be a vintage series of boozy bust-ups and manic meltdowns that also spawned such TV names as Jade Goody and Alison Hammond.
Back then, 20 years ago, the show looked invincible, with a record ten million viewers seeing Kate triumph in the finale of the Channel 4 phenomenon.
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Then in 2015 a glitzy rival called Love Island came along — and the old reality TV giant, which by then had long since lost its shine, was axed within three years.
But now, with plans to bring back Big Brother, Kate reckons young viewers sensationalised by the ITV2 dating show will have their minds blown by Big Brother.
She said: “I always knew it would come back, and I’m so excited for its return to see the reaction of Millennials. There’s now this whole new generation of kids who’ll be watching it for the first time.
“I was working with a production team recently and they were one or two years old when I won BB. They hadn’t even heard of it, let alone watched it.
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“It was at a time in reality TV when producers didn’t ration alcohol because there hadn’t been any serious bust-ups that involved the police being called!
“They were like, ‘Yeah, that’s cool, ply them with alcohol, that’s fine’. We got drunk every night. The amount of booze we had was quite something.
“We’d play games and be set challenges, and that’s how you get people to argue. In series five when there was a fight they called it Fight Night.
POPULARITY CONTEST
“And with booze comes drinking games. There was so much spin the bottle, I snogged everyone — I think.”
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Kate, 42, who emerged triumphant from the BB house on July 26, 2002, had a particularly interesting group to choose from.
As well as Jade and Alison, Big Brother 3 included Radio 1 DJ Adele Roberts and Peter James “PJ” Ellis, who at one point appeared to have a sex act performed on him by Jade under the covers.
Then there was Sandy Cumming, the grumpy older housemate who ended up jumping over the roof to escape the excitable youngsters. And of course there was hunky Spencer Smith, who had the whole nation quivering with his puppy dog eyes.
Kate said: “I snogged Alex and I’m pretty sure I snogged Adele, then I had a little bit of a romance with Spencer. It didn’t last though.
“A magazine sent us to Bali to do this romantic shoot together and we fell out. By the time the magazine came out we’d broken up.
“In the first few years of Big Brother they were like, ‘We have to be careful, we have to hide’, we can’t let anyone know.
“But by series six no one cared at all and it was like, ‘If they have sex then they have sex’, and they just didn’t care.
“And Big Brother was always more interesting if they did find love, because unlike Love Island that wasn’t the premise of the show.
“It was a popularity contest, so any romance was a nice little extra. But there was no sex for me.”
From Makosi Musambasi’s pregnancy fears in the hot tub to Kinga Karolczak and her wine bottle party trick, Big Brother’s saucy antics always eclipsed anything we’ve seen on Love Island.
Kate loves both shows, but wants the two formats to remain distinctive.
She said: “I sometimes watch Love Island and I think, ‘This is basically Big Brother in sunshine and bikinis’.
I snogged Alex and I’m pretty sure I snogged Adele, then I had a little bit of a romance with Spencer. It didn’t last though.
Kate Lawler
“But the format really works and is a huge success, and I think that’s why they’ve decided to bring Big Brother back. What they’ll do, I predict, is put a lot of really good-looking young people in to replicate that. It’s like, ‘Love Island have basically taken our format, so let’s take the new bits from theirs that we never had’.
“But they must still have a variety of people. They have to look at different age ranges to cause tension. Big Brother has to be diverse.
“It was great that you had winners like Brian Dowling, who was gay, and Nadia Almada, who was trans. It felt like the public voting for them were becoming more accepting of people being who they wanted to be.
“It’s not going to work at all if you just put in 15 white 20-year-olds. They need to have a good bunch of characters. But I think they will, because the Big Brother producers have basically found some of the best characters on TV.”
Like Love Island, the latest incarnation of Big Brother — which started on Channel 4 in 2000 then switched to Channel 5 in 2011 — is also set to be made by ITV.
Kate is excited at the prospect of the channel splashing some serious cash on the comeback and hopes it will also revive Celebrity Big Brother.
She is also keen for the show’s original Channel 4 host, Davina McCall, to resume presenting duties.
She said: “I’d love to host it but I’m not in the same league as Davina, or for that matter, Emma Willis or Rylan Clark. I’d like to see any of those three host it — but of course I’d never say no.”
Kate’s hope is that the reboot recaptures some of the magic of Big Brother 3. She said: “I know I’m biased but I think BB3 was such a golden era. I’m really proud of how well everyone’s done from that series.
“Alison (Hammond) has done incredibly well. She’s hosting This Morning and has done Strictly. I remember I met Alison in the house and thought, ‘She’s winning it’.
“She was incredible. She was funny, likeable and had great energy, but she was evicted in week two.
I’d love to host it but I’m not in the same league as Davina, or for that matter, Emma Willis or Rylan Clark. I’d like to see any of those three host it — but of course I’d never say no.
Kate Lawler
“It doesn’t surprise me at all she’s doing what she’s doing now. I always knew she’d be a superstar.
“Jade (Goody) went on such a rollercoaster. She was up for eviction in the first week and got booed on eviction night.
“Then later in the series they were cheering for her and the British public went full circle.
MIXED FORTUNES
“And that was pretty much the same in her life. She had huge success and then went back into the house, and that’s where it went horribly wrong for her.
“What she did was amazing, becoming the first millionaire reality TV star, going through her whole cancer ordeal in public to raise awareness.
“When she died it was so tragic and sad, and the older I’ve got, the more tragic it’s become somehow, especially now I’m a mum.
“Adele’s career has gone from strength to strength and just look at what she’s overcome with her bowel cancer.
“But somehow I knew a woman would win BB3. I thought that when I walked into the house on the first night. I just didn’t think it would be me.”
Although series three was a high, by 2010 the ratings were falling and C4 let the show go to Channel 5, which axed it in 2018. Kate says the show’s slow demise coincided with her own mixed fortunes as she attempted to do other TV work — including appearing on the first celebrity incarnation of Love Island in 2006 — before increasingly moving into DJing.
She said: “I almost felt embarrassed I did the show at one point. There was a stigma that came with it. In about 2007 I went for a job on another reality TV show and they said, ‘We don’t want anyone from Big Brother on’.
Alison (Hammond) has done incredibly well. She’s hosting This Morning and has done Strictly. I remember I met Alison in the house and thought, ‘She’s winning it’.
Kate Lawler
“So I learned to be a club DJ then, because I could feel the work drying up in TV.
“By 2010 people were like, ‘You were on Big Brother years ago — no one cares’. I had two people at a gig once in Ireland and the bosses went, ‘Don’t worry about it, just go home’, and I was devastated.
“At that point I thought, ‘I’ll have to stop DJing, there’s no point in doing gigs where no one turns up.”
Fortunately Kate’s life turned a corner in her thirties. She became a local radio DJ, then in 2016 joined Virgin Radio.
Then she met Martin Bojtos, whom she married this year. The couple had a daughter, Noa, in February last year, which led Kate to leave her full-time job two months ago.
But she’s back on Virgin this week, standing in on the drivetime show for Gaby Roslin.
Today she says she is happy where she has ended up — and it’s thanks to Big Brother.
She said: “Financially and career wise I’ve done some really cool and exciting jobs, though there were times when I thought, ‘Why did I do that show?’
“But then I also thought, ‘Well, if I didn’t do Big Brother I wouldn’t be where I am now’. So I can only ever look at Big Brother in a positive light.
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“That’s why I’m so excited it’s coming back.”
- Kate Lawler hosts drivetime on Virgin Radio, weekdays from 4pm to 7pm.
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