VOYEUR BRITAIN

 

On the telly and the Net, we've all gone crazy for these sleazy peep shows.

 

From: Sunday Mail (Glasgow, Scotland)  | Date: July 2, 2000  | Author: Findlay, Jane 

 
THESE days, it seems the flies are no longer content to stay on the wall.

They're now in the shower, the bathroom and even the bed.

For we've been turned into a nation of peeping toms, obsessed with prying on the lives of others.

Movie makers, TV executives and internet firms are behind the new Voyeur Britain craze.

The latest see-all, hear-all TV event to hit Britain is Channel 4's Big Brother. Hosted by newly-wed Davina McCall, it will see 10 complete strangers share a camera-riddled house.

Every move they make will be filmed for the enjoyment of those at home.

Viewers will "judge" the contestants on their behaviour and each week one of them will be voted out of the show.

The last contestant left in the house will win a pounds 70,000 prize. The losers will be lucky if they leave with their dignity intact.

Big Brother will run for half an hour each night for 10 weeks.

The show proved a massive hit in its native Holland, where 73 per cent of the population tuned in on a regular basis.

Two of the contestants were even filmed having sex.

When Britain's first fly-on-the-wall documentary, The Family, was screened by the BBC 25 years ago, it delved into the humdrum squabbles of the Wilkins family from Reading.

Now viewers of the new brand of spy shows can expect to see complete strangers doing everything from taking a bath to making love.

Compulsive peepers can also tune into the internet, where more than 22,000 websites provide live camera links for them to watch people - or even animals - 24 hours a day.

Psychologists say the craze is set to explode as new technology allows us to get behind more closed doors than ever.

They believe viewers know no limits when it comes to satisfying the voyeuristic streak which lurks within all of us.

Dr Mark Griffiths, head of psychology at Nottingham Trent University, explained: "It's not about sex. It's about a natural curiosity in other people's lives.

"The fascination stems from the fact that we know that what we see is actually happening. It's real people and real lives and there's something every one of us can relate to."

In the States, the fly-on-the-palm-tree show Survivor - which keeps tabs on contestants on a tiny island in the South China Sea - has outstripped Who Wants to be a Millionaire? with an audience of 18 million.

But Britain's most famous documentary maker, Desmond Wilcox, believes the shows don't make for good viewing.

He said: "When you keep a camera hidden, what you produce is exhibitionism.

"They know the camera is there and nobody is prompting them to relax. The result, in my opinion, is not good viewing."

Yet the millions who tune in to these shows can't be ignored.

Wilcox was delighted in 1986 when his series, The Marriage, won 16 million viewers.

It followed Marc and Karen Adams-Jones on their way to the altar. They are still married, with four children.

The BBC's love affair with these shows took off in 1996 when Airport pulled in an astonishing 13 million viewers.

Its success was matched by The Cruise, which also launched the career of unknown singer Jane MacDonald.Then came the hated traffic wardens of The Clampers and the successful Hotel, based at Liverpool's Adelphi Hotel.

Although many staff were portrayed in a poor light, the Adelphi's bookings soared.

Along the way there have also been the likes of the hugely-popular Driving School, Jailbirds, The Matchmaker, The 1900 House and Rail Tales.

Recently, TV chiefs have altered the recipe by adding a surefire ingredient - sex.

ITV's latest offering, Pleasure Island, follows a chosen few on Hedonism 11 in Jamaica.

In the BBC's controversial Castaway 2000, 30 volunteers were stranded on the remote Hebridean isle of Taransay.

But much of the interest has focused on who gets off with posh hunk Ben Fogle.

Hollywood hasn't been slow to cash in on the craze. In The Truman Show, Jim Carrey played the unwitting star of a real-life soap, with his every move beamed into millions of homes throughout the world.

But the internet has turned voyeurism into a multi-million pound global business.

With an estimated 22,000 webcam sites now in operation, surfers can follow everything from life on an African plain to the mundane goings-on in an ordinary London house.

Top Ten Web sites suggested by The Net magazine are:

1. June Houston's Ghostwatcher: www.flyvision.org/ sitelite/Houston/Ghostwatcher/

This woman is so sure there's something strange going on in her house that she's set up web cams and spotlights and asks us to look out for spooks.

2. The Ducttape Cam: www.jthorsse/dcam.html

People will declare their undying devotion to anything from corned beef to Caprice. The tape is actually played from within a goldfish bowl.

3. Dealey Plaza Cam: www.earthcam.com/jfk.

Live view from the window of the former Texas School Book Depository in Dallas Texas. The vantage point from which Lee Harvey Oswald shot President John F Kennedy in 1963.

4. AfriCam: www.africam.com

Stunning live pictures from the plains of Africa.

5. The Dolls House: www.bravo.co.uk/dolls

Chat to three young women and watch them play with their pets.

6. Fridge Cam: www.electrolux.co.uk/show.asp?id-168

Live from within a fridge. Discover if the light really does go off when the door closes.

7. Ultimate Taxi: www.ultimatetaxi.com

Pictures from the back of a cab in the upmarket skiing resort of Aspen Colorado.

Window

8. The Peeling Paint Web Cam: www.mich.com/-rrreibel/ paintcam.html

Is your life as interesting as watching paint dry? Try watching it peel instead.

9. Lobster Cam: www.midcoast.com/lobcam/

Pictures from a lobster net, updated every two minutes.

10. SexyJim.com: members. spree.com/jdever/sexyjimentry.html

Nothing risque here. Just an "ordinary" person setting up their own webcam page.

Alan Stevens, head of digital services at the Consumer Association, said: "Many of these sites are incredibly voyeuristic, and, in some cases, they border on pornographic.

"However, like the TV shows, they provide a window on the lives of ordinary people. It's a form of reassurance that others do the same things as us and have the same reactions.

"I suppose the bottom line is that we're all plain nosy."