Big Brother 2003 (UK)
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''Big Brother 2003'', also known as ''Big Brother 4'', was the fourth series of the British
reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...
series '' Big Brother''. The show followed thirteen contestants, known as housemates, who were isolated from the outside world for an extended period of time in a custom built House. Each week, one or more of the housemates were evicted by a public vote. The last remaining housemate,
Cameron Stout Cameron Stout (born 8 March 1971) is a Scottish journalist and presenter for BBC Radio Orkney and the winner of '' Big Brother 2003''. He received 1.9 million votes, 500,000 more than runner-up Ray Shah. Cameron is the elder brother of televi ...
, was declared the winner, winning a cash prize of £70,000. As with the previous three series, ''Big Brother 4'' lasted 64 days. It launched on
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
on 23 May 2003 and ended on 25 July 2003.
Davina McCall Davina Lucy Pascale McCall (born 16 October 1967) is an English television presenter. She has presented various television shows for Channel 4, including ''Streetmate'' (1998–2001, 2016), ''Big Brother (British TV series), Big Brother'' (2 ...
returned as presenter for her fourth consecutive year. Twelve housemates entered on launch night, with one additional housemate being introduced in the sixth week. The series was watched by an average of 4.6 million viewers, the fourth highest viewed series of the show to date (joint with '' Big Brother 6''). ''Big Brother 4'' has since been regarded as one of the most "boring" series of the British edition of the show. It did, however, become memorable for a bomb scare that led to the temporary evacuation of the House, and for being the first UK series of ''Big Brother'' to feature a double eviction, foreign housemate exchange and a return of a previously evicted housemate.


Pre-Series


Auditions

Potential housemates applied by sending producers a home video that stated why they should be housemates. Successful candidates were invited to further rounds of auditions. This was the last year to feature this audition format as from '' Big Brother 5'', open auditions were used to select housemates. ''Big Brother 4'' had more than 10,000 applicants apply to be a housemate.


Presenters

Davina McCall Davina Lucy Pascale McCall (born 16 October 1967) is an English television presenter. She has presented various television shows for Channel 4, including ''Streetmate'' (1998–2001, 2016), ''Big Brother (British TV series), Big Brother'' (2 ...
continued to host the main show and
Dermot O'Leary Seán Dermot O'Leary (born 24 May 1973) is a British-Irish broadcaster. He presented the television talent show ''The X Factor'' on ITV from 2007 until its final series in 2018, with the exception of 2015. Since 2021, O'Leary has presented ITV' ...
continued to host the spin-off show, ''
Big Brother's Little Brother This is a complete list of shows about and relating to ''Big Brother UK'' and ''Celebrity Big Brother''. The civilian edition originally ran from 2000 to 2018, and again since 2023. The celebrity edition ran from 2001 to 2018, and again since 20 ...
''.
Marcus Bentley Marcus Bentley (born 4 October 1967) is a British actor, broadcaster and voice-over artist. Bentley is most known for narrating the British version of the Dutch reality television programme '' Big Brother'' since its inception in 2000. He als ...
continued to narrate the show.


Promotion

This series was promoted as being a 'Back to Basics' edition; following the twists to the format introduced within the past series.


Promotion controversy

To promote the series, a large 210 ft
hill figure A hill figure is a large visual representation created by cutting into a steep hillside and revealing the underlying geology. It is a type of geoglyph usually designed to be seen from afar rather than above. In some cases trenches are dug and ...
of the eye logo was painted on the top of White Horse Hill,
Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...
, right above the famous
Uffington White Horse The Uffington White Horse is a Prehistoric Britain, prehistoric hill figure, long, formed from deep trenches filled with crushed white chalk. The figure is situated on the upper slopes of Whitehorse Hill in the English civil parishes in En ...
, believed to be around 3,000 years old. The eye first appeared on 1 May 2003 and was created by seven circlemakers. Although permission for the figure's construction was agreed to by
The National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...
, the figure angered local residents. It was washed off the day after completion. This figure was one of several examples of the eye being presented as a
geoglyph A geoglyph is a large design or motif – generally longer than – produced on the ground by durable elements of the landscape, such as stones, stone fragments, gravel, or earth. A positive geoglyph is formed by the arrangement and alignment ...
to promote the fourth series. Others included another hill figure, approximately half the size of that at Uffington, being placed next to
Urquhart Castle Urquhart Castle ( ; ) is a ruined castle that sits beside Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland. The castle is on the A82 road, southwest of Inverness and east of Drumnadrochit. The present ruins date from the 13th to t ...
,
Loch Ness Loch Ness (; ) is a large freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands. It takes its name from the River Ness, which flows from the northern end. Loch Ness is best known for claimed sightings of the cryptozoology, cryptozoological Loch Ness Mons ...
,
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
, which appeared from 3–5 May, alongside a
crop circle A crop circle, crop formation, or corn circle is a pattern created by flattening a crop, usually a cereal. The term was first coined in the early 1980s. Crop circles have been described as all falling "within the range of the sort of thing ...
in a secret location in Southern England and as a depiction on a beach in
Kidwelly Kidwelly () is a town and community (Wales), community in Carmarthenshire, southwest Wales, approximately northwest of the most populous town in the county, Llanelli. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census the community had a population ...
,
Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
.


Broadcasts

The series premiered on 23 May 2003, on
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
. The contestants were recorded 24 hours a day with cameras fixed around the house, and the wearing of portable microphones mandatory. ''Big Brother 4'' was the second regular series to feature a live launch. The series ended on 25 July 2003, lasting for a total of 64 days.
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
broadcast a 30-minute highlights show nightly, with each Friday episode being a live episode that saw one of the housemates evicted from the house. Live coverage from the house also remained a huge part of E4's daily and nightly schedule. A new show named '' Nominations Uncut'' was broadcast on E4 every Tuesday, in which it would show housemates nominations in full, rather than edited clips as seen in the main show. During Cameron's visit to
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
, E4 showed highlights of his stay straight after the main Channel 4 show.


Eye logo

The shape of the eye remained the same as the previous year, but a different art design was used. The eye was multi-coloured with black and white stripes beaming from the pupil of the eye.


Sponsorship

The series was the last to be sponsored by O2. The mobile network had sponsored ''Big Brother'' since '' Big Brother 2'' in 2001.


House

The ''Big Brother'' house has been located at
Elstree Studios Elstree Studios is a generic term which can refer to several current and demolished British film studios and television studios based in or around the town of Borehamwood and village of Elstree in Hertfordshire, England. Production studios ha ...
, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire since the third series of the show. The house featured a completely new look compared to the previous series. The living room for this series was one-third smaller than the one featured in the previous series, and features red and green couches and chairs. The kitchen remained simple in design, with only necessities such as an oven, fridge, and sink included. The dining table was located beside the kitchen and was coloured yellow and white. The Diary Room featured a soft pink coloured background and contained a large blue chair. Like previous editions of the series, there were two bedrooms in this series, with the two being located beside one another for the first time. ''Big Brother 4'' saw the return of the chicken coop in the garden, a feature used in the first two series. The chickens were used as a source of food (eggs), thus the housemates were not required to buy eggs as a part of their weekly shopping list. The house garden also included a large seating area and a vegetable patch which the housemates could use to grow plants and vegetables to eat. This series introduced the Rewards Room, where the winning housemates of the weekly live task were invited and were often thrown a party.


Format Changes

''Big Brother 4'' featured an opening night twist, like the previous two series. Housemates had to nominate one housemate for eviction on the first night, and any housemates who received even one nomination were automatically up against the public vote. Later in the series, housemate,
Cameron Stout Cameron Stout (born 8 March 1971) is a Scottish journalist and presenter for BBC Radio Orkney and the winner of '' Big Brother 2003''. He received 1.9 million votes, 500,000 more than runner-up Ray Shah. Cameron is the elder brother of televi ...
, accepted a challenge from Big Brother and discovered it meant spending a week in the
Big Brother Africa ''Big Brother Africa'' is the African version of the international reality television franchise ''Big Brother'' created by producer John de Mol Jr. in 1997. The show was first aired in 2003 for one season on M-Net and broadcast to audiences i ...
house. Housemate Gaetano spent time in the ''Big Brother 4'' house while Cameron was in Africa. ''Big Brother 4'' was the first series to feature a double eviction, with two out of the three nominated housemates being evicted on Day 29. On Day 37, Lisa entered the house as part of a twist. This series was also the first to allow previously evicted housemates to return, with ex-housemate Jon entering the house for a second time on Day 50. He remained in the house until the finale, but was ineligible to win the grand prize.


Housemates


Post-Series

Housemates from ''Big Brother 4'' failed to make many appearances in future regular series' since their evictions. However, Anouska was a participant in the 2004 spin-off series '' Big Brother Panto'', along with other housemates from the first five series'. Housemate Federico later appeared in '' Big Brother 10'', participating in a task celebrating ten years of the series, and ''
Ultimate Big Brother ''Ultimate Big Brother'' was the final series of the British reality television programme '' Big Brother'' to air on Channel 4. The series was produced by Remarkable Pictures, a division of Endemol. ''Ultimate Big Brother'' was an all-star edit ...
'' saw housemate Lisa make an appearance participating in a task inspired by her time in ''Big Brother 4'', and Jon also made a short appearance in a task.


Weekly summary


Nominations table


Notes

*: On Launch Night, shortly after entering the house, all housemates had to nominate one fellow housemate based on first impressions. Any housemate who received a nomination automatically faced eviction. *: Week 4 was a double eviction. The three or more housemates with the most nominations faced the public vote, and the two people with the most votes to evict left the house on Day 29. *: Cameron made his nominations from the Big Brother House in South Africa over the phone to Gaetano. Even though he could nominate, none of his fellow housemates could nominate him. *: As a new housemate, Lisa could not nominate and could not be nominated by her fellow housemates. As Cameron had only recently returned to the house from South Africa, he also could not be nominated by his fellow housemates, however he could still nominate. Due to a bomb scare on Day 43, the scheduled eviction for Week 6 was postponed to the following day. That week's evictee, Gos, left the house to no crowd outside the house. *: Ray, as leader of the house in Week 7, was the only one who could nominate, and had to nominate three people. Following Lisa's eviction on Day 50, voting lines opened for the public to vote for an evicted housemate (either Justine, Sissy, Federico, Jon, Gos, or Lisa) to return to the house. As a guest in the
Big Brother Australia ''Big Brother Australia'' (also known simply as ''Big Brother'') is an Australian Reality television#Reality competition or game shows, reality show based on the international ''Big Brother (franchise), Big Brother'' format created by John de ...
house, Anouska was ineligible to go back, neither was Tania, who refused to return. As the chosen ex-housemate, Jon was granted re-entry into the house, but was ineligible to win. *: Because Jon was a guest in the house, and was not eligible to win, he could not nominate and could not be nominated by his fellow housemates. *: There were no nominations in the final week. The public voted for who they wanted to win, rather than evict.


Bomb scare

On Day 43, a sniffer dog found a suspect package near to the house and directly near the stage where
Davina McCall Davina Lucy Pascale McCall (born 16 October 1967) is an English television presenter. She has presented various television shows for Channel 4, including ''Streetmate'' (1998–2001, 2016), ''Big Brother (British TV series), Big Brother'' (2 ...
interviewed evicted housemates. The package was believed to contain a bomb and was found during a routine security check. Just before 20:00, housemate Scott was informed in the Diary Room by Big Brother that all housemates were to go to the boys bedroom and remain there until further notice. Around 20:45, Hertfordshire Constabulary police force advised that all housemates were to be evacuated. Production staff and a camera crew entered the house, made them aware of the security alert and evacuated them. They were taken to a secure area on the perimeter of the studio complex, with high levels of security accompanying them. At 21:35,
Marcus Bentley Marcus Bentley (born 4 October 1967) is a British actor, broadcaster and voice-over artist. Bentley is most known for narrating the British version of the Dutch reality television programme '' Big Brother'' since its inception in 2000. He als ...
informed the viewers that the Big Brother gallery, where the production crew monitored the house, also had to be evacuated, all filming was required to stop and as a result, cameras were turned off and all filming of the housemates in the secure area wasn't permitted, however they were still required to follow the rules of the show. A 100-metre cordon was put into force around the house by police where the press and audience were required to wait for their safety. Bomb disposal police carried out a controlled explosion of the suspect package around 22:00 and turned out to be a false alarm. The all clear was given by police around 00:00. Just before 01:00 on Day 44, housemates were permitted by police to re-enter the house. Two live shows at 20:30 and 22:00, where a housemate was due to be evicted, were cancelled by Channel 4 at short notice and instead, an episode of ''
Friends ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane (producer), David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting List of Friends episodes, ten seasons. With an ensemble cast ...
'' was broadcast in its place. The eviction went ahead on Day 44 without an outdoor crowd.


Reception

''Big Brother 4'' averaged a total of 4.6 million viewers throughout the course of the series, a decrease from the 5.8 million series average from ''Big Brother 3'', however ''Big Brother 4'' did have a slightly higher series average than the first two series of ''Big Brother UK''. The series is often regarded the 'most boring' series to be broadcast in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. Weekly ratings for each show on
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
. All numbers are in millions and provided by
BARB Barb or the BARBs or ''variation'' may refer to: People * Barb (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname * Barb, a term used by fans of Nicki Minaj to refer to themselves * The Barbs, a band Places * Barb, ...
.


References


External links

*
''Big Brother'' - Series 4
at Channel4.com {{Big Brother UK 2003 British television seasons 04 Television shows shot at Elstree Film Studios