Tempted by the snippets of that familiar trance-like tune emanating from the Channel 4 website, the compulsion to view a group of nobodies reach for flickers of fame has returned. The rumours, fuelling fascination before the show's launch, are rife: Will Chantelle make a surprise re-entry into the house? Will the housebound happenings get even more extreme than last year? Will Channel 4 stick to its promise to be stricter with those contestants who break the "regulations"?
But among all this TV titillation, I am prepared for the snide snobs who will once again dismiss this fad that has lasted into its seventh series. This year, wouldn't it be nice if such cultural critics left their sneering to themselves? For surely there's more than just coincidence or lack of channel choice in the huge numbers of people that tune in to watch Big Brother in countries all over the world every year.
Big Brother may be voyeuristic. It may even be a bit stupid. But if you've been getting off on the current soap opera of political life in Westminster, if you're excited out of your mind about the prospect of a group of overpaid guys kicking a football around slabs of grass during this summer's World Cup, then be big enough to acknowledge that many people's motivation to watch Big Brother is just the same. The ins and outs of who's doing what to who; the need to spy and gossip on others; the thrill of competition; the desire to see mirrors of our own ambitions, desires and fallibility even if we're too scared to admit it. The only difference between the Big Brother house and the House where Tony and his mates hang out is that the inhabitants of the former are much more representative of the world that most of us live in.
So if you're really not going to sneak a peek at Big Brother late at night when the family is in bed, if you're really going to turn a blind eye to every World Cup goal, and you honestly don't give a damn about Dave vs David or whatever political punch-up is currently gripping Westminster ... then have you thought about MySpace?
