| James |
04-02-2005 12:04 PM |
Phil Edgar Jones talks Big Brother
Quote:
Big Brother chief comes home.. to watch you
ADRIAN MATHER
TOMORROW Phil Edgar Jones will be returning to his home town. This won’t be a social visit to see family or friends in the city he grew up in, however, but part of his job as head of features and entertainment at Endemol - the creators of reality TV show Big Brother.
Because tomorrow, thousands of hopefuls are expected to gather at the gates of the city’s Corn Exchange eager to audition for the sixth series of the hit show and the chance to become the next Jade Goody.
The anticipation of such a sight should, you would think, have the 42-year-old full of glee. But Phil sounds a little worried.
"So many people have seen the show now and a lot of them think that being on Big Brother is going to be the free ticket to fame and wealth," he says with a sigh.
"Everyone thinks they’re going to be the next Jade, Kate or Nadia, but they’re more likely to be Dean or someone else who no-one has heard of now."
Phil knows what he’s talking about. He’s been in charge of the last three series of the show and its last two celebrity spin-offs.
"It’s something that we try to tell everyone who makes it to the interview stages. They think it’s just going to be this great experience where they’ll all become famous, so we sit them down and have the infamous ‘Talk of Doom’ with them.
"We tell them about all the bad aspects of the show. Everyone thinks they’re going to be the chirpy bubbly Brian-like figure, but they could just as easily end up being as hated as Jason, Adele or Nasty Nick. You just don’t know how the public will react.
"We also have to point out that being famous actually isn’t much fun, and just make them aware that they could find themselves getting abuse hurled at them by people on the street. It’s surprising how many people haven’t realised that before applying in the first place."
Despite all this, Phil doesn’t believe they’ll be short of hopefuls.
"We only started doing open auditions last year but we still had a great mix of people turning up."
The auditions are also a chance for Phil to return to the city.
"I really grew up in Edinburgh," he says. "It’s certainly more of a home city for me than West Kilbride, where I was born. From the age of eight until my early-20s I lived in the Cramond area."
The family moved into a three-bedroom bungalow in Barnton, from where his civil servant father would commute into the city centre. Phil went to Cramond Primary and then Royal High School before going on to study communications at Queen Margaret’s College.
"I remember going over to Cramond Foreshore or hanging around the River Almond with school friends when I was growing up," he reminisces. "I had a great time there for many years.
"I also remember having a paper round delivering the Evening News and Edinburgh Advertiser when I was younger. The pay wasn’t great, but it was the first job that I ever had. I used to have to go to all the poshest houses in the area with this very heavy bag."
But he admits that his television duties don’t give him many chances to come back home. "My brother is still living in Edinburgh and working as a nurse so I try to visit him when I can, but it’s not as often as I’d like.
"The only other time I get to come up is during the television festival. It’s a work thing, but I try to sneak away and have a good nosey around the city whenever I can."
HE continues: "I really would have loved to stay here and work, but the opportunities weren’t there when I finished college. Ironically, in TV terms, there seems to be a shift back up to Scotland now, which is very exciting. I’d love to come back to live and work, but it’s very difficult when you have a family to think about. I live with my wife and six-year-old daughter in London now.
"When I first arrived in London [in 1988], I started working as a journalist and sub-editor with Sky magazine, and later became a presenter on the Movieworld show that Channel 4 was showing in the mid-90s.
"I think I actually ended up being sacked by Johnny Vaughan, but it just proved to me that I didn’t want to be in front of the camera at all.
"The logical step was to get involved with production, and I ended up being involved with shows like The Priory, The Word and The Big Breakfast. I never really imagined I’d have anything to do with reality TV until someone offered me the Big Brother job and I agreed to do the production on the second series and the Big Brother’s Little Brother shows. I absolutely loved it and I’ve been doing it ever since."
He joined Endemol in 2001 and has also worked on the company’s ratings smash show The Salon, as well as one of Channel 4’s most controversial reality shows Shattered - where contestants were deprived of sleep for a week.
"I’m really proud of that show," Phil says.
"We had sleep experts telling us it helped them to study the effects of sleep deprivation on a large group of people. No-one had done that before, so I think it was far more than a cruel reality show."
But he is in no doubt about which of his programmes has had the biggest impact in British culture.
"Big Brother is just a phenomenon," he acknowledges proudly. "Every year, we hear people saying we can’t keep it up, but I truly believe it can run and run.
"People just get wrapped up in it in the same way as they do with EastEnders or Coronation Street.
"People want to see characters falling out with each other and forging friendships with others. They want to see personalities and maybe even a hint of romance.
"To be honest, I don’t think anybody really wants to see all of the squelchy, in-your-face sex that the papers keep banging on about. Just look at the Paul and Helen episode from series two - it was a really sweet romance that millions of people watched eagerly, and they’re still together three years on. It would have ruined the whole thing if they’d actually got down to it in the house."
However, he quickly points out that the cameras would keep rolling if the show ever produced such raunchy scenes. "We’ve never cut anything for being too risqué or extreme. The stuff we tend to bin is the boring action where everyone’s asleep."
And Phil is unrepentant about unleashing one of the biggest characters from the show’s five-year history - namely "Bermondsey bombshell" Jade.
"I guess I’ll have to take responsibility for that," he grudgingly admits. "But I like Jade. She’s really lovely.
"In fact, I think she’s one of the few contestants who has managed to make a lot of money out of Big Brother thanks to magazine shoots and all these ‘exclusive photos’. I hear she’s just got a new set of boobs as well, which I expect will earn her more cash. If anything, I’m proud of inflicting her on the nation."
So what advice would he give to any hopefuls from the Capital who turn up tomorrow?
"Just be yourself really," he says. "Honestly. There are so many people who try to be wacky or zany but can only keep it up for three minutes. It’s so easy to tell when someone’s putting on an act, so don’t even bother."
The Big Brother auditions are at the Corn Exchange tomorrow from 9am. All applicants must be over 18 this summer and have photo ID with them. Selected hopefuls will get one minute to sell themselves in a video diary room.
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http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=134192005 |
