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A decade after Big Brother hit UK screens a new type of reality programme launched that subtly changed our ideas about truth.
Big Brother has started to get dull. Contestants have learned how to perform for the cameras. To keep the show interesting, the producers have to keep making the show weirder and more unnatural, always upping the ante.
One of the original Big Brother producers was looking for new ideas.
What if Big Brother went into the real world, where the cast would be free to take advantage of their fame? The programme could follow the social lives and loves of ordinary people – just touching it up here and there to make it more entertaining.
The show became The Only Way Is Essex, or TOWIE for short, and was at the vanguard of a new genre of reality tv known as ‘hyper’ reality.
The cast were normal people, but looked like extras from a soap. The scenes were constructed, but the emotion was real.
The lines between truth and fiction were starting to blur.

Presenter: Jamie Bartlett
Producer: Gemma Newby