Latest 7 magazine

The watchmen

Big Brother was an Orwellian construct. Encouraging paranoia, it was the powers that watched your every move in George Orwell’s novel 1984, overseeing all, the nanny state taken to an extreme when ‘caring’ became ‘taking care of’.

So when, all those moons ago, a still reasonably fresh faced Channel 4 shoved a group of disparate people in a house together with some chickens and body paint and filmed their every move, it was a phenomenon that took off beyond everyone’s expectations. Big Brother was watching them and we were watching Big Brother. Just like in the novel, Big Brother was judge and jury of all wrongdoings. Just ask Nasty Nick. But best of all Big Brother was watching ordinary people being their own remarkable selves. Read the rest of this article »

Charm offensive

O h, my giddy aunt! It would appear that every straight girl’s ideal proposition would be a separated single dad athlete who’s quite good at the old quickstep and has an ex-girlfriend who is incredibly successful in her own right. This’ll be fun. Cheers Gavin Henson for stepping into the breach on The Bachelor. Read the rest of this article »

Home grown

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that everywhere you go in this country it’s pretty much steeped in history. Generally we’re too busy getting to where we’re going, seizing the day, and making the most of what we’ve got here to have too far a look back at who had it before and what they did with it. When I worked in London I used to sit on the top deck of the Number 10 bus as it went down Oxford Street, then Park Lane and through Knightsbridge on my way to work (it was a commute within London by the time I arrived!) and look at the architecture of the buildings as seen above the shops. The mix and match of periods, materials and styles is even more obvious in Brighton – all you need to do is look at Grand Parade as the skyline of a single road jumps and starts like a teenager at his first driving lesson. Thanks to bombs, demolition, and general historical activity. Read the rest of this article »

Hair raising

There’s a new Freeview channel launching this week. Really? Yes, Really. Now that we’ve got that gag out of the way, the channel is called Really and its heralding Hair Battle Spectacular as one of the major new programmes in its schedule. This is a UK premiere, but then so was The Real Housewives Of New Jersey at one point and I’m not waiting on tenterhooks for the next episode of that. The proof is in the pudding, and is hair really enough to draw attention to Really? Read the rest of this article »