Since anyone's opinion is as valid as everyone else's, you are sure to acquit yourself well unless you make a ghastly error such as declaring a secret passion for Nichola or indifference to the fate of Marjorie the hen. In offices across the nation, colleagues who never passed the time of day are shouting to each other across the room about the latest developments on the web. Gauche managers who weren't in on other water-cooler conversations are now, at last, able to wow the ladies with a full diagnosis of Marjorie's stomach complaints. Suddenly, boring people don't seem boring anymore. For a limited period only, you no longer have to fear the bus queue, the work get-together or those difficult conversations with your dad.
Every social gulf is bridged.
Embarrassing pauses are banished. For the legions whose lives have been altered by the experience of finding themselves with one foot in common ground, the social and professional benefits are far more important than the pleasure of engaging with the programme. Entranced as they are with the idea that liking Big Brother makes them look more human, they are using it, more than consuming it, for leverage. What may look like a genuine obsession is therefore exposed as a pose in people who sneer at soap operas and whose grasp of the drama inherent in the human situation is reflected in their social ineptitude. Someone who is interested in people will communicate with their fellows well beyond the current six-week run.