The Best Big Brother Ever?

Was this the best Big Brother ever?

I used to think it was BB5, even though Nadia won, and I never took to her at all. For me, she was all gimmick and not much personality. A bit better than Kat, and at least she never backed away from a confrontation, but I never actually liked her. And I particularly resented the way Davina and co were clearly backing her all the way.

But that didn't stop me enjoying it.

Winning isn't everything. I also loved the first one. Maybe that's because it was the first. The second was pretty damn good too. I could go on.

What was good about the early series, and what has been missing from recent ones is that the housemates were more normal and likeable.

They all had flaws, but none seemed set in their ways, and they were all open to criticism. They were less wannabeeish, and older too.

Two years ago half of them seemed to have been dragged out of London's nightclubs. They all seemed to know each other. And they all seemed defiantly pleased with themselves.

The other thing that's been missing lately is the Friday night eviction thriller. I missed Sada's eviction, but I vividly remember Andy losing to Caggy. Stunning television.

The next year we had Bubble losing to Paul, the following year it was Spencer losing to Alex. In the old days, before we were all cynical and jaded, the evictions were much less predictable.

In the last few year's it's been amazingly obvious who was going. In the year Pete won, I often figured out not only who was going to be up for eviction the day before nominations, but I got every single eviction right. Last year, I only got one result wrong, the very last one.

But this year, I did get it wrong. And the votes were closer.

But what I liked about this year is that I changed my mind a lot. Over the last 95 days, I have variously sung the praises of Rachel, Stephanie, Luke, Darnell, Rex, Mikey, Lisa, and Mo, thinking all of them genuinely great housemates who could go on and win.

There were even moments when I suddenly decided that Mario, Dale, Stuart, Sylvia, Kat, and Bex had something about them, and maybe I'd got them wrong. Of the latecomers Maysoon seemed very nice, and even Belinda Belinda Belinda was a character. Without ever thinking she'd win either, I suddenly developed a passion for Sara, just because she took so much on the chin.

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I can't say I ever thought too much of Alex, Jen, Nicole, or Dennis, though.

But of those eight I sometimes favoured, there were moments I wanted to crawl into my television, break into the studio and grab them by the lapels and tell them that they were annoying the hell out of me. These were the moments when I thought I must be mad for ever liking them in the first place.

But that's what I liked about the show this year. One moment, I love a housemate. One moment, I hate them.

If I always felt the same about them I wouldn't think the show would be worth watching. Last year I pretty much knew what I thought about Brian and Samanda after a fortnight. The same with Liam and Ziggy. I got the picture.

I was a bit slow to pick up on the full horror of Carole, but that was the only think that really changed for me. So it was pretty painful viewing.

Looking back, the one big mistake I think I made this year was being too generous to Rex. Heaven knows, I slagged him off enough, but I also cut him a bit too much slack. It wasn't the individual things he did. Bit by bit, I thought a lot of the bad things he did weren't so bad, really. But cumulatively, overall, it was pretty wearing.

So Rachel is boring. She's nothing like her vt. So she chose the wrong cake. Okay, Rex. We get it. You've made that point twenty times already today. We get it.

Of course, it's been way too long. The first few series were nine weeks long, this was thirteen. It's like a test match that goes on for a week, or a football match that goes on for three hours. Or a pop song that's ten minutes. Theoretically, they could be good. But sometimes, it's just too much.

Think of all the things they've missed: 13 weeks ago the South African cricket team hadn’t even landed. The Olympics hadn’t started. Neither had Euro 2008. Wayne Rooney hadn’t got married. Barack Obama hadn’t won the Democratic nomination. Russia hadn’t invaded Georgia. Labour hadn’t lost the Glasgow East by-election. David Davis hadn’t resigned his seat, and then won it back. Kevin Keegan was still the manager of Newcastle United.

And Sara was watching launch night just like the rest of us.

It's been a long time.

Still, considering all that, it's been a terrific series. Confrontations, arguments, friendships, tears and laughter. After the constant messing with nominations over the four previous series it was good to see them take them seriously again.

Big Brother is first and foremost a contest, an elimination game, not a freak show, and so long as they all feel it's a fair fight, then it will always be a great show whoever the contestants are.

Can't wait for next year!