'I forgot who I was': how Big Brother changed my life

It was the reality show that changed British TV for ever. As its greatest hits' return to our screens, five contestants reflect on the highs and lows of life in and out of the Big Brother house

On 18 July 2000, 10 people entered a custom-built studio in a lot in east London. They were taking part in what was being billed as a unique social experiment": the opportunity to watch ordinary people on our screens, day-in, day-out.

No one could have known then the influence Big Brother would have on our viewing habits, or how it would birth the genre of reality TV in the UK. At the time, it was just another gameshow. But over the next 19 series - and 22 celebrity spin-off series - it redefined the nature of entertainment and modern celebrity. Thanks in part to the concomitant rise of tabloid magazines including Closer and Heat, with their endless appetite for celebrity gossip, the housemates, who entered the Big Brother house as nobodies, left as stars. In its heyday, Big Brother was a ratings goliath: the season three finale reached 10 million viewers. Housemates such as the late Jade Goody became cultural icons, while the likes of Alison Hammond and Brian Dowling became broadcasting mainstays in their own right.