Big Brother took a long time to die, but it was Jade Goody who killed it. God rest her soul, but she was just so enchantingly stupid. On she came, way back in 2002, not knowing what East Angular was and thinking Rio de Janeiro was a person. You could imagine producers sitting up, counting the headlines, licking their lips, and deciding that this was the future. That was the beginning of the end.

Everybody remembers the stupid ones off Big Brother. There was Jade herself, of course, Queen Dumb, but there were plenty of others, too.

You might remember Helen from 2001 (hobby: blinking), Emma from 2004 (evicted after a fight, top kept falling off), or Nikki from 2006 (“the mind of a 12-year-old,” said Russell Brand, “in the body of a 12-year-old”). In later years they were nearly all stupid save the customary older bloke, normally with a degree, who was expected to spend his time being moodily incredulous and ogling the girls in the hot tub.

This was a shame, because it was actually the clever ones who made Big Brother great. Not the geeks, but the plotters. The ones who thought they were better than all the others, and had plans and strategies. The ones who actually treated it as a game show, rather than a showcase for a future career in minor celebrity. Remember “Nasty” Nick Bateman?

Remember the crazy, manipulative Makosi, or the science geek Jon Tickle, or predatory, terrifying Michelle who might have won her year if she hadn’t been so hellbent with getting that pretty chap called Stuart into bed? This was what kept us coming back.

We forget, because we were encouraged to, but when Big Brother began, they actually made quite a big deal about how it was all supposed to be a great big psychological experiment. It was all about how people would behave, confined together, under constant scrutiny. Once, the answer to that question wasn’t “Just like a Big Brother contestant”. That was what made it so fascinating.

And it was fascinating, don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. Big Brother didn’t just change British telly, it also changed Britain. Before the first series, who would ever have believed that the top three in what was essentially a British popularity contest could have been a camp black man, a Geordie builder with a speech impediment, and an Irish lesbian ex-nun?

Celebrity Big Brother was another nail in Big Brother’s coffin, because it was just so much better. You didn’t need to learn about the housemates from scratch ½ they had established public personas already.

Few things on television have ever been better than CBB 2006, with George Galloway, Michael Barrymore and Pete Burns. At present, CBB’s future is uncertain. Most likely, it has another year.

Poor Davina McCall. Whatever will she do now? Hardly anybody has been watching BB this year. According to those who have, it has actually been a quiet return to form, with ample scheming and petulance, and backstabbing.

The whole concept, alas, has grown stale. Nothing lasts for ever. This time around, the youngest contestant is a chap called Cairon, who is 18. That means that, when the show began, he was 8.

Davina must feel ancient.

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010