[James]

I'll Do Anything to Get on TV
Channel 4
Sunday 10th April 2005
21:00 to 23:05

This two-hour special charts the history and growing trend for seeing 'real people' on television and examines the lengths people will go to make their faces and lives public property. Featuring interviews with reality stars including Big Brother's Jade Goody, Driving School's Maureen Rees and Wife Swap's Lizzie Bardsley and those responsible for bringing these hit shows to our screens; Peter Bazalgette, Paul Watson, Jeremy Mills and Stephen Lambert, I'll Do Anything To Get On TV pieces together the story of how the public took over the schedules - and how they're not giving it back. From the earliest Candid Camera stunt to the growth of reality TV, from the first 'confessional' daytime show to the rise of the docu-soap, the programme uses rare archive footage from the last 40 years of TV and considers how the public have become the stars of the small screen. Commentators including Janet Street Porter, Vanessa Feltz, Esther Rantzen and Mark Frith talk about their experiences and discuss whether Andy Warhol's fanciful dream that "one day everyone will be famous for 15 minutes" has now become a nightmarish reality.