Josie Gibson wins the final Big Brother!

*Josie Gibson won Big Brother 2010; Brian Dowling won Ultimate Big Brother* *Big Brother highlights screen each evening on Channel 4; live coverage from the house throughout the night on E4* Ten years on, the Channel 4 'social experiment' has morphed into a celebrity wannabe maker or breaker, but for fans it doesn't matter - every summer a wide-eyed bunch of young 'uns enter the house in Elstree as nobodies and emerge blinking into camera flashes three months later as... Almost somethings. Davina McCall is back as Big Brother's über-host and is one fan who will never tire of the format. "It always feels fresh to me," she says. "I spoke to the producer today and he told me something that absolutely made me gasp. I love that Big Brother can still make me gasp." Big Brother's Little Brother host George Lamb says the show has upped its game - because it had to. He thinks in recent years Big Brother was derailed by housemates entering with a closely guarded game plans. "There were a couple of years in the middle where maybe they didn't know how to respond to the people coming in with game plans. But now they've figured out how to do that," he says. "Certainly the last few years they've got it right back on track." Channel 4 commissioning editor David Williams says the 'magic ingredient' that keeps the audience hooked is the housemates - and he has no doubt producers Endemol have found a new crop of heroes and villains. Big Brother has made stars of some - notably the late Jade Goody, Craig Phillips, Samanda - and villains of others - Nasty Nick Bateman, Alexandra De-Gale, Charley Uchea... And this year's vintage will be more cocksure than ever before about what to expect when they walk up the gangway and say goodbye to the outside world for summer 2009. But Big Brother warns them: "It's not what you expect it to be."

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.