Move over Big Brother, it's Little Brother!

For the past ten years, every summer we have heard Davina McCall’s high-pitched screeches from our television sets, exclaiming ‘You are live on Channel 4, please do not swear!’ However, after a significant era of reality television, the Big Brother phenomenon is finally over and not without a few relieved and thankful faces.

However, all is not lost for die-hard fans of reality television. The show, which is reason for the rise and downfall of many household names, has spawned many different and successful copycat series’, such as Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, Dirty Sexy Things, Made in Chelsea and The Real Housewives of New Jersey to name a few.  Following the epic success of these reality shows, Channel 4 has revealed their screening of another programme, guaranteed to shock the nation. In a situation not unlike its main earner, Big Brother, Channel 4 have forced a group of personalities into a shared house to live and get to know one another. The difference? The stars of the show are all less than 5ft tall.

Entitled Seven Dwarfs, the show follows seven vertically challenged people along the Christmas period as they star together in the pantomime Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The cameras document the seven as they party hard whilst simultaneously trying to focus on their panto performances. The cast include a dwarf couple, a drag queen and actors who have starred in major films, such as the Harry Potter series.

But do we really need another reality TV show? Every channel seems to be jumping on the proverbial bandwagon and our cosy nights in in front of the television seem to be inundated with these shows, featuring ludicrous characters and even more ludicrous behaviour (who can forget last month’s Geordie Shore?) However, even I have to admit, I am a sucker for this cringe-y, invasive television, in which we are able to watch over-the-top, larger-than-life but nonetheless very real people going about their daily lives and doing thing we wouldn’t dream of doing. Despite the largely universal opinion that reality shows have ruined television, this new TV series is simply catering to the public’s needs (we have to admit the popularity of Big Brother after all). Plus the added extra of the ‘reality stars’ being under 5ft tall means that Seven Dwarfs could end up being more entertaining and successful than the rest.

On the other hand, although this programme is tarred with the same brush as other reality shows featuring big (or in this case, small) personalities, Channel 4 claims that Seven Dwarves will not hold its subjects up only to knock them down again. Instead, the seven dwarves are all lively, down-to-earth people, who are open to people’s reaction to their size and will provide an entertaining and fascinating experience into how they live their lives: coping with their size and performing on stage. Channel 4 therefore claims the show will change the public’s preconceptions by providing an honest and rounded insight into the private and professional lives of such a minority group. Executive Producer Nick Curwin said: "By capturing every aspect of their lives, the series will break-through panto stereotypes to show how this group of dwarf actors face the challenges of ordinary life head-on."

Whether I’ll be cringing or pleasantly surprised, I’ll most certainly be watching! Seven Dwarves airs on Tuesday, August 16!

Hope you enjoy it,

Emma xx

Geordie Shore. Good, bad or just plain ugly?

So the hottest new shockumentary has hit our screens this month and it has certainly got everybody talking! Whether you love it, hate it or are warring a rampage against it, everyone has an opinion on the antics of the lads and lasses on MTV’s Geordie Shore!

A reproduction of its most successful ‘reality’ series Jersey Shore, MTV has created another show, in which 15 strangers from the North East are thrown together in a Big Brother-style pad and their shenanigans are viewed 24/7. Similar to the pseudo reality TV docu soaps of The Hills and The Only Way is Essex, Geordie Shore follows some extravagant characters in and around Newcastle, including an 18-year-old self-confessed ‘Posh Spice of Middlesbrough’ with fake FF breasts and a heavily-plucked Geordie male whose hardest days work is doing his hair. Despite a lack of an intriguing plotline in which the characters are merely viewed entering a variety of different nightclubs night after night, the Geordie Shore creators have certainly upped the ‘sex factor’ with this show, in which the characters are seen getting frisky with a multitude of different people in every episode, including each other.

The Geordie Shore cast.

However, despite popular ratings of over 1.3 million in its opening episode, trumping the MTV Music Awards, The Hills and Jersey Shore, and addictive characters, the show has caused uproar in the place the Geordie Shorers all know and love. Newcastle natives are worried about the region’s reputation and have branded the show a disgrace, believing the lewd and embarrassing behaviour to cause untold damage to the region’s image. This belief was so strong that a Facebook page was created, called ‘RIP Geordie Pride24/05/2011 10:00pm’, the moment which the first episode of Geordie Shore aired, which currently holds over 30 thousand members. Locals are so sore about the subject that the show is banned in city pubs, branding the show as pornographic. The Geordie Shorers, however, have defended their actions, saying that they are not representing Newcastle, they are merely representing themselves and they just do what any other average person does on a night out.

In addition, people from Middlesbrough, the hometown of cast member Holly Hagan, are also livid over her performance on the show, in which she obsessively parades her voluptuous body and continuously cheats on and argues with her boyfriend. This led to her being ostracised by the group and leaving the show within the third week. Middlesbrough was named ‘the worst place to live in the UK’ in a 2007 report by Location, Location, Location and ever since, there has been a resurgence of people defending and trying to regenerate the area, resulting in a city bid this year. However, due to Holly’s experiences on the show, sudden fears have emerged that the public perception of the town will have deteriorated; meaning the town and its people’s efforts will have been in vain.

Holly's outrageous behaviour in the hot-tub.

Personally, and as a local from the North East, I am enjoying the show purely due to the outrageous behaviour and extreme characters. However I do agree that many people outside the North East will form certain derogatory opinions due to what happens on Geordie Shore. I do feel that the show represents extreme behaviour and is not a true representation of how we Northerners truly live. Not all Geordies act that way but it can’t be denied, it is certainly entertainment!

What's your opinion on Geordie Shore, do you love it or hate it? Please feel free to follow me on twitter: @emmarobinson14.

Thanks,

Emma.