As the fourth series of Big Brother begins tonight, TV writer Steve Pratt looks at what attracts viewers to the reality show and why one former housemate feels he got a raw deal.

As a fresh batch of contestants move into the Big Brother house tonight, they'd do well to heed the warning of former inmate Jonny Regan. The former fireman from County Durham has no regrets about entering the house, but feels betrayed by the makers of the Channel 4 programme.

He worries that no matter how much you are yourself, housemates are at the mercy of those compiling the programmes that are broadcast.

"You can go in, be yourself and not put a mask on, and at the end of the day, they choose to show what they want to show anyway," he says. "You can have an absolute ball, and they might show you to the public as a manic depressive who hated every minute in there.

"I'd say to people going in the house to be aware of the editing when they come out. Just because you're a funny guy or gal and make loads of friends in there and everyone loves you, you can come out to be disliked by the public simply because of the way they edit it.

"That's the hardest thing to come to terms with: the producers have their favourites and choose to show what they want."

Jonny's criticism merely confirms what isn't always acknowledged. Reality shows are as moulded and shaped as much as any piece of fiction. Contestants live with each other 24 hours a day, for up to nine weeks in the case of Big Brother. Viewers see a fraction of what happens and, with the need to win big ratings, the emphasis is inevitably on the more dramatic and sensational events.

The ingredients of the game are the same as any soap or classical drama - love, hate, arguing, bickering, flirting, drinking, betrayal, friendship. And that's what it is, a game, not real life no matter how much the word reality is bandied about.

Jonny was so annoyed by what he considers "unfair editing" that, post-eviction, he stopped watching tapes of the series after seeing the first two weeks worth. The false impression given by the programme was brought home when he met a Big Brother watcher in London, who asked, "are you really that nice?", a remark prompted no doubt by the Geordie joker role in which the makers had cast him.

"I thought, 'what do you mean, I was myself in there?'," he recalls. "I said to them, 'didn't you see me lose my head?', but they didn't show that. People think they know you but they don't."

Jonny will be watching Big Brother 4, but only because he's being paid to by a TV magazine. He won't be the only one - it will be difficult to avoid as Channel 4 saturates the schedules with Big Brother coverage over the next two months. Daily highlights, live eviction programmes and daily despatches from the spin-off Big Brother's Little Brother are part of the package to make viewers fall for Brotherly love. It doesn't stop there, with E4 streaming live footage from the house, plus text polls and downloadable video clips for phones.

Viewers show no signs of deserting major reality TV shows, with or without the word celebrity in the title. Some entries in the genre, like Reborn In The USA and Survivor, have failed to attract big audiences. Others, such as BBC1's Fame Academy, have been slow in catching the viewing public's eye. But the recent I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! drew audiences of ten million or more on ITV1.

That was a short, sharp shock for the celebs with the action concentrated over two weeks. Big Brother - the mother of all reality shows - has to keep the momentum going for nine weeks, and producers feel that going back to basics is the answer.

This follows the stormy passage of housemates in the third series with critics claiming they'd been chosen specifically so they'd stage fights or a love-in. Big Brother 4 is retreating from the extremes that blighted the third series. The 12 housemates will be expected to work as a team rather than against each other to complete the weekly task to earn food.

"It's a return to emphasising day-to-day life in the Big Brother house," claims executive producer Gigi Eligoloff. "Every year we change the format of the weekly task because it changes the way people interact in the house. Last year it was very divisive, so we want to focus on the group dynamic and the task is now a team activity."

At least they won't have to plunge their faces into tanks of wriggling snakes or eat bugs to earn a crust as the celebrity jungle dwellers did. And the housemates get to live in a nice house not a jungle clearing.

The house at Elstree Studios has been given a makeover. It's smaller and more cocoon-like. Bright colours and stark design have been replaced by cosy colours and rounded edges on the doors and mirrors. The smaller, more intimate surroundings will either help them get closer to each other - or drive each other up the wall. Either is acceptable in terms of good television.

The identity of the housemates has been a closely-guarded secret. What's certain is that they'll have been carefully chosen to provide a volatile mix rather than a dozen people whose idea of a good night is to go to bed early with a good book and cup of cocoa.

Don't expect to see a jovial Geordie among the cast list, as the producers avoid people who share similiar traits to the previous year's contestants. The word "showoff" isn't one that passes Eligoloff's lips either. "We're looking for people who are memorable and entertaining, but not entertaining in a performance sense," she says.

"The Big Brother house is not a stage, it's there for people to be themselves and be honest. Also this year we're particularly interested in finding people who are quite diverse. Going back to that core idea of 12 strangers, we wanted them not only not to have met, but also not to have met those kinds of people. They will be strangers in the purest sense."

All the better if they get carried away under the duvet, strip off during drunken late-night games, or just pee in the shower. If they do all three, they're the ideal housemate.

Heroes and villains will emerge, and viewers will doubt the suitability of some contestants to suffer the ordeal. At least one expert has said that, as a recovering drug addict, Danniella Westbrook should never have been allowed to go into the celebrity jungle. Last year's Big Brother was criticised when it looked like Jade Goody, reviled inside the house and outside in the press, might crack under the strain. To her credit, she emerged from the house still smiling and has since proved herself one of the most resilient of the housemates.

None of this prevented a rise in the number of people wanting to enter the Big Brother house, although Eligoloff notes that their application videos were more restrained than last year's batch.

She's not worried that the house of 2003 won't live up to its predecessors. "What keeps it fresh is that the house is a blank canvas," she says. "The changes are very much the backdrop to the action. There are certain things like the weather that will affect things, but they will never determine and define what stories we're going to get. That's why it's exciting for me as a producer and for the viewers. We just don't know what's going to happen."

* Big Brother begins on Channel 4 at 8.30pm tonight .

Making it last

ONCE outside the house, some Big Brother inmates make their 15 minutes of fame last considerably longer.

Jonny Regan, who was runner-up last year, quit the fire service for showbiz. Pantomime at Newcastle Theatre Royal was followed by his current tour in the stage musical Boogie Nights. Ironically, he's also narrator of Tyne Tees Television's new reality show, WestEnders (which begins on Tuesday at 10.30pm).

One ambition is TV presenting - something Big Brother 3 winner Kate Lawler has already achieved as co-presenter of C4's breakfast show RI:SE. She also co-presents a Capital Radio show with Andi Peters.

Jade Goody, who's expecting a baby, has continued to work in TV. First, she was in Comic Relief's Celebrity Driving School and now she's filming Celebrity Wife Swap, spending two weeks with Who Wants To Be A Millionaire cheat Major Charles Ingram.

Several other Big Brother 3 contestants are working in TV; model Alex on ITV1's Wish You Were Here and Sky's Fear Factor, and Adele on Yorkshire TV youth show Attitude. Spencer has made a programme on fishing for the Discovery Channel.

Big Brother 2 winner Brian Dowling is the co-presenter of Saturday morning show SM:TV Live, and the new series, Brian's Boyfriends. Narinda, too, took the TV route, presenting Undercover Lovers for Trouble TV.

Paul and Helen are still a couple, but he's gone back to his day job and she gave up hairdressing. Bubble is studying at drama school, Elizabeth returned to website designing, and Josh is back running his company in Soho. The most unusual development involves Stuart and Dean, who teamed up to invent the Tea Bag Bin.

Craig Phillips, winner of the first Big Brother, appears in TV DIY shows. Anna has been involved in game shows and documentaries on the BBC, and had her own programme on the Irish channel RTE.

Claire and Tom, who've had a son, moved to Spain. Nasty Nick Bateman did the rounds of TV shows and is now apparently taking a course in drama.