It would be an enjoyable conclusion to a reality TV show that has plumbed new depths in banality and flesh exposure if its breakout star were not Olivia and Chris or Amber and Kem, but Benny, the guy on camera 2.
Love Island fans have been abuzz since a picture of the cameraman appeared on Twitter, circulated by narrator Iain Stirling. It shows an unassuming bearded man who had, until then, been mentioned only by name.
Benny – full name not disclosed – has taken to fledgling fame like an inflatable flamingo to water, sharing pictures of himself variously balancing sandwiches on his head and cradling a pig, via his new Twitter account, @Bennyoncamera2, where he also retweets his unlikely new fan club (sample: “Hope Primark add a #TeamBenny T-shirt to their collection ready for the finale next week”).
Yesterday I ended up on camera 2 with the one and only @Bennyoncamera2 #LoveIsland pic.twitter.com/AggNBu4FoR
— Iain Stirling (@IainDoesJokes) July 15, 2017
Benny walks, quietly behind the scenes, in the footsteps of other unlikely reality stars. When Jeremy Kyle cowered in the face of romantic overtures from two women who were on his show to DNA test a baby, he called in Steve the bouncer for backup. Viewers expressed their love for the burly security guard, who was then awarded the dubious honour of reading out the test results (a man called Gary was the dad).
And on RuPaul’s Drag Race, the cult US drag queen contest, Sarge, a former US Army sergeant turned cameraman, appeared in front of the camera to be made over by Drag Race stalwart Peppermint. He reemerged as Winter Green, to broad acclaim.
Generally, of course, we go on to hear as little about these production people as we do the stars of the shows. But not always. In 2006, a junior member of the production team working the audience microphone on Channel 5’s the Wright Stuff lined up Eric, a man who had something important to contribute to a live discussion about whistleblowers. But when a production assistant invited Eric to speak, he replied only with: “Do you fancy a bum?” The assistant’s baffled face would have become a viral meme had Twitter existed. Instead, it gained some attention on, for example, Google Groups. But he had the last laugh; Amol Rajan is now permanently installed in front of the camera as the BBC’s media editor.
