Leading article: Banal and boring

In fact there are signs that the Big Brother concept itself has run out of steam. The first series was interesting and had the value of novelty. But over the years it has become crass, banal and - worst of all - extremely boring. At times it seemed as if the show's producers were trying to provoke something - anything - to happen just so they had enough footage for the nightly show. The Big Brother phenomenon may not be dead yet, but it's certainly up for eviction.