[Harry!]

The Producer

Catherine Jones quizzes Welsh Big Brother producer Shed Simove about the house and his plans for the future...

THERE are perks to this job and one of them is interviewing self-confessed mischief-makers like designer, author, comedian and Big Brother producer, Sheridan Simove.

He’s the kind of person who makes you wonder if it is good news after all – that the world isn’t just full of mindless followers latching on to what Heat magazine declares the latest craze, and that there are still original thinkers who have the creativity and drive to turn things upside-down.

Such is the dismal lack of originality in society today, the only worry is that this Oxford-educated 24-hour ideas machine will be marginalised as a frivolous maverick only good for his entertainment value.

On paper, Sheridan promises to deliver, describing himself as "biologically 36 with a mental age of 12".

There’s the incident where he was escorted from a bookshop after he started plastering it with posters advertising his new book – "Don’t panic! We have a few copies of Ideas Man by Shed Simove left" said the poster.

And there’s the time he tried to change his name to God because he wanted to impress people at parties with his credit card.

He managed to find a solicitor to change his name legally but it all turned ugly when the bank said they needed two names on his account. So, typically, he suggested Almighty God (A.God on the credit card!) and they threatened to close all his accounts.

So it’s looking good – who wouldn’t want to know more about a man who proudly relates he spent his childhood attending his mother’s themed parties? – and the reality isn’t a let-down.

Sheridan, or Shed as he prefers, is a producer of headline-grabbing Big Brother – the new series starts on Thursday – but that’s the least of it.

A designer who has won prizes for his products, Shed is currently working on a PPod – a MP3 player that looks like a pea pod – as well as a brand of margarine sold in the shape of a buddha called It Has To Be Buddha.

Shed, who also has an idea for "slightly contentious" billboards, hit the headlines six years ago when aged 30, he posed as a 16-year-old schoolboy at an English school for a television documentary (which was never shown).

He made the front cover of The Sun, had to "go on the run for a bit" but the upside was Channel 4, seeing someone "passionate about making original and engaging television", gave him a job on Big Brother where he has been for the past five years.

"There’s a real buzz about this year," he says of this summer’s BB9.

"We’ve got fantastic housemates, there are going to be some great surprises in the housemates as well as with what we do with them. The house is bigger and the ideas are thick and fast."

He says the secret to Big Brother is seeking out compelling people – the kind of stranger you see on the Tube or bus who makes you want to know more about them – and he is surely from this mould himself.

Despite his obvious talents, he’s not in the least self-regarding and his outlook on life is refreshingly egalitarian. Not for him a snooty superiority that implies he is the only interesting person in the room.

"Everyone has something interesting about them. Everyone has their own unique take on the world," he says.

"They have all been brought up differently and therefore that translates into how your ideas will be affected by your experience. So everyone’s ideas will be different. Then it’s how you take that idea and shape it."

So why isn’t society full of creative mavericks gagging to get their ideas out to an audience?

"It comes from school and parents. We are not told to be entrepreneurial. And yet there are so many opportunities around us.

"Look at eBay for example. You can become a massive retailer on there."

Shed, whose brother Russell has his own recruitment company and sister, Olivia, has a successful career in television, credits his Cardiff-based mother, Judy, as his inspiration for making the most of life.

"She inspired me. She always asked questions. Why is something taboo? Why are we not allowed to do this?

"In a word my mum is a questioner. She’s contrary and she often flies in the face of convention though you don’t realise that type of thing as you’re growing up.

"Her parties were something special. She does a lot of designs for weddings now and her attention to detail is amazing.

"When we had a Diana party as a family, she wanted to do a Union Jack and made it out of rice – in red, white and blue rice and no one ate the blue rice, because blue signals to the brain to keep away – like blue mould on cheese and stuff… just an interesting aside…

"My dad used to run bingo and snooker clubs in the Valleys. He did things like start up a compact gym company. He tried projects and I’m glad I saw him doing that because it has taught me about being entrepreneurial."

Shed’s book, Ideas Man, is an inspiring exploration of creativity but it isn’t selling as many as he would like.

"I’ve got one theory why that might be – the book is hard to categorise and bookshops have had it in biographies.

"But because my phone number is in the book people have randomly phoned me so I’ve been getting calls saying things like ‘This is the first book I’ve read right through for 15 years…’ or ‘You have inspired me to take my ideas further…’ which is great to hear."

He admits he went into one bookshop, armed with posters which he started sticking on walls and windows, to promote his book though the sheer frustration at not seeing copies shift – not for the money from sales but because he wants to spread his message.

"After five years of sitting down and writing it – even though it’s not War and Peace it was hard to do – I just want people to read it," he says. "The whole thing was a big labour of love and for it to go into the shops was massive and as long as it reaches the most amount of people, I’ll be happy."

He’s always got lots of ideas.

He sent First Minister Rhodri Morgan a letter asking to become Creative Tsar for Wales – the polite reply said "no thanks" and that they had a "big section" dealing with that.

"I like being mischievous. I don’t agree with the idea that there’s a line we have to tread. I like the idea we have choices. I blame school. We are taught ‘Do your GCSEs, your A-levels, go to university, plod, plod, plod’. None of this involves being taught to ask questions."

Having said that he is full of praise for his old school, Cardiff High.

"The teachers were very forward- thinking. They let me get away with murder. Things like, one time in sex education. Mr Miles, who had about 10 kids, said something like ‘What is a penis for?’ And I said ‘Mrs Miles’.

"There was Dr Davies who changed my life because he believed in me.

"When my predicted grades weren’t good enough to go to Oxford he backed me when I said I am going to try. And I got there in the end even though Oxford wasn’t what I hoped for – three essays a week and five men to every girl isn’t my idea of a good situation."

After university he went to Disneyworld in Florida where he worked as a "16th century gentleman" and it was here, he says, that he realised that if he was going to "do something capitalist", he needed to pay attention to every detail.

"Disney had these people called imagineers – creatives crossed with engineers."

He got a job at Bob Geldof’s production company Planet 24, beating off 2,000 other hopefuls, and stayed at the Big Breakfast creators for six years.

Shrewd moves to get himself noticed included discovering the boss loved a particular Coronation Street character.

"So I got Mike Baldwin who played Johnny Briggs to sign a photo of himself saying ‘Hire Shed, it’s right up your Street’."

His other book is Presents Money Can’t Buy, inspired by the time he took a girl with green eyes who he really fancied to a restaurant and "did lots of silly things" such as notes instructing her to light a match to "heat the date".

Shed is still waiting for his big break – one mystery is why he is working behind the camera when he surely should be on-screen – but his life is an on-going crusade to show the benefits of thinking differently.

He designs all sorts of products such as The B*** Plug, a pink rubber, bum-shaped cover for an electrical plug. His long-term motive is to make enough money so he doesn’t have to work for other people and can pursue his own agenda.

"My prime motive is to do something that excites me and I’m passionate about. Things that are childish and naughty and mischievous."

"I have to earn money to pay for a mortgage but it’s great when I get an email about one of my ideas coming through."

He denies it’s ironic that a man so dedicated to inspired thinking should be working on a television show accused of "dumbing down".

On the contrary, he says, Big Brother is about inspiring and challenging both the housemates and the audience.

"Every day we have to keep coming up with new stuff. Every single thing we do has to intrigue the audience and stimulate the housemates."

"We try to pick people you can’t take your eyes away from for whatever reason – they are gorgeous, fascinating, funny, unusual.

"The second thing is to challenge and change people’s preconceptions of things."

He studied experimental psychology at Balliol College and believes Big Brother has a "massive part to play in pushing things forward."

He adds: "I do think people love it because it’s a real-life human soap opera. We have got some characters in the new series."

Any Welsh housemates? "We are always welcoming to all regions. Keep watching. The good thing about the Welsh is they have a sing to their voice, and they have a joie de vivre that comes across on television.

"When you go into a room you can often tell who will make good television. There are those people who for whatever reason catch your eye and you think ‘I want to know about them. On the tube or the bus. It’s the same on camera."

Maybe Shed and the Big Brother house were meant for each other. Who better to come up with ideas for the house than a man with a mother who themed parties – another was an Airplane Party where Judy sent out invites like airline tickets, sat the guests in rows and served them food in plastic airplane trays.

Shed’s father was dressed as a pilot and the children were air stewards.

Never let it be said they were bores in the Simove House. And now here’s a piece of my creative, lateral thinking for the attention of the Big Brother boss. Put Shed in the House.

Big Brother’s launch party is on Thursday on Channel 4 at 9pm

The Newbies

The new faces of Big Brother’s Little Brother, George Lamb and Zezi Ifore, on taking over where Dermot O’Leary left off...

Well done on getting the gig you two. Are you excited about taking over BBLB?

Zezi: Extremely so, very excited. One might say ecstatic.

George: Of course, it’s one of the biggest TV franchises in the history of television and what a wonderful thing to be part of it.

Are you nervous about stepping into Dermot’s shoes?

G: Ah, he’s only got little feet. We’re actually trying to have a baton-passing ceremony with Dermot, he’s been wonderfully supportive for a long time now. I want to go down to a running track and have him actually hand over the baton to us.

Has he given you any words of advice?

G: No, but he said we can call him any time.

Z: He gave us his blessing which was nice.

G: We’re going to put him to the test and ring him every morning for the next 13 weeks, to see if he’s true to his word.

Dermot used to do some pretty bizarre things. Last year he dressed up in a white latex bodysuit, and he has done a lot of silly dancing over the years. What are you going to do to keep the tradition of silliness in the name of BBLB alive?

G: Obviously we’re going to work within the parameters that it’s a switch-over show to Big Brother, so we can never go too far from it but in order to make it our own show and in order to not mimic what Dermot did, we have to take ownership of the show. So I think it’s going to be a different show and I think it’s going to be driven far more by humour and…

Z: Hijinks!

G: Well…. rather than slapstick comedy it might be a little subtler and one would hope a little cooler than before.

Do you know much yet about how it’s going to work then?

G: Yep. I’m not going to dress up in a lot of latex, that’s the main thing.

Z: I think it will be more opinionated, that’s what people want to hear. Telling it like it is, keeping it real!

G: I definitely want to hear what I’ve got to say.

Can you tell us about any new segments within the show?

G: Ooh can’t tell you anything about that!

Z: Watch and see.

It goes without saying you’re both big fans of the show?

Z: Of course! I watched it when I was meant to be revising for exams. That and Wimbledon. And I passed all my exams!

G: So it just shows, to all the students out there, that you can still watch the show and do alright.

Z: It just shows! 6 A*s and 4 As good enough for you? I think so. Thanks Big Bro!

What have been some of your favourite moments from past series?

Z: Obviously Jade and her kebab belly, hilarious. I loved Tania with her copious amounts of blusher, that’s vintage BB but I did love that, the big blusher thing going on. And Nadia, just Nadia, in general. And Makosi, just being Makosi. Oh actually, all time best moment: Aisleyne teaching them how to bogle by the pool. Aisleyne bogling, ghetto-stylee.

G: Generally, if there’s bogling I’m happy.

Z: Let’s get a dancehall queen in the next series that’s what I say.

Following on from that, are there any types of characters you would like to see in the house who perhaps haven’t been represented before?

Z: A dancehall queen!

G: We’ve had a pretty broad spectrum so far, but I’d like some genuinely funny people in the house. I’d love to get proper stand-up comics in there. I think it should be mandatory.

Which stand-ups would you put in then?

G: If I could put anyone in there to really make me laugh? Peter Kay would be great in there.

Z: Ruby Wax!

G: No, funny people!

Z: Liza Tarbuck, let’s get Liza Tarbuck in there.

G: Get Johnny Vaughan in there, he’s funny.

Z: But also some miserable people. Cynics, true sourpusses. I love people who are just miserable. Emos! We’ve not had an emo, I’ve not seen a fringe come down and there’s not enough eyeliner.

G: Or Goths.

Z: Get My Chemical Romance in there!

Tell us something about yourselves that viewers wouldn’t already know about you

G: I could almost speak fluent Spanish about two years ago.

What happened?

G: I split up with a girl and stopped practising.

Z: I speak French and Italian. And I love Pat Benatar. And I love Meatloaf.

George, you used to manage Lily Allen. When was this and why switch from behind the scenes to in front of the camera yourself?

G: I managed her for two years and all the A&R men in London seemed to be deaf for the six months we were hawking around eight of the 11 tracks that were on that record, Smile included. After about the tenth knock back we said this isn’t really working and a friend of mine, who runs Remedy Productions, asked if I’d like to come in and have a bash at presenting so I went and did that. My friend Adrian then managed Lily and they put the stuff on myspace and it went from there.

Z: I was in A&R too.

Yes, you’ve got a strong music background as well.

Z: Yes, and I DJ too. Sometimes by myself and sometimes with Grimmy (fellow presenter Nick Grimshaw).

Are we going to see any of your DJ skills on BBLB?

Z: Yeah maybe. Maybe we’ll get some tunes in, some old time big bangers. We can have a rave-up, maybe on the Sunday show have a two-minute rave. We can make up songs, I love making up songs. Me on the xylophone or the ukulele. Me and Grimmy have a number 1 hit in the offing. It’s about biscuits.

George: I’ll manage you. Oh, actually, maybe that’s not such a good idea!

George, your dad is Larry Lamb, who was Mick in Gavin & Stacey. How cool is that!

G: The coolest. He’s having a bit of a renaissance. He’s going to be in EastEnders in the summer too. He kind of had his 15 minutes when I was a boy. When I was little he used to be properly famous, and then he went to not properly famous. But it’s alright, he’s back in the game! It’s lovely, really nice.

Did you grow up on television sets then?

G: All the time. I spent my life flying to wherever he was. I was the number one British Midland fly-on-your-own kid. What are they called?

Z: Billy no mates?

G: Where you get a woman holding your hand, and crayons and everything.

Z: Aw, he’s from good stock George is.

Finally, can you sum up in three words what you want the all-new BBLB to be?

Z: Zezi and George!

G: Yep, there you go!

(I will post Davina's interview later.)

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/