Big Brother 2003 (UK)

Big Brother 2003 (UK)

Big Brother 2003, also known as Big Brother 4, was the fourth series of the British reality television series Big Brother, in which a number of contestants live in an isolated house trying to avoid being evicted by the public with the aim of winning a large cash prize at the end of the run. The series launched on Channel 4 on 23 May 2003 and ran until 25 July 2003.

This series saw several surprises. Four housemates were nominated on the opening night after the housemates were told to make instant nominations based on first impressions, with every housemate receiving even one nomination facing the public vote; of the four, Anouska was evicted one week later. One housemate, Cameron Stout, accepted a challenge from Big Brother and discovered it meant spending a week in the Big Brother Africa house (one of the African housemates, Gaetano Kagwa, spent some time in the UK house in return). There was a surprise double eviction, new housemate, and return by evicted housemate Jon Tickle for the last two weeks (he was not eligible to win, though he opted not to tell his housemates this). The £70,000 prize was eventually won by Cameron. Several housemates later had presenting or acting jobs.

After Big Brother, Cameron, Jon Tickle and Ray Shah went on to have successful careers in the media industry. Cameron is an occasional columnist with The Sunday Post newspaper and has appeared in panto in Aberdeen. Jon co-presented Brainiac: Science Abuse on Sky1. Ray now works in the radio, television and entertainment industry in Ireland. He presents radio shows on Classic Hits 4fm. Ray also works as a club DJ playing at venues around Ireland.

The reaction to this series was poor, the press and viewers finding the housemates boring. Despite this, the series did hold strong viewing figures, averaging 4.6 million viewers. None of the housemates in this series participated as a housemate in Ultimate Big Brother, however, Lisa Jeynes and Jon Tickle returned to the Big Brother House briefly in Ultimate Big Brother to take part in a shopping task. The series was not exactly remember in a good light during the Big Brother franchises' final series in 2010, on the penultimate day of Ultimate Big Brother, the shows' narrator Marcus Bentley entered the house to host a funeral service for the end of Big Brother and after talking about Big Brother over the years said "...but it was never boring... well, except for Big Brother 4".