Big Brother 'one of top 20 TV landmarks'

Big Brother was today ranked alongside the Apollo moon landing and Live Aid as one of the greatest landmarks in TV history.

British magazine Radio Times has drawn up a list of 20 programmes that changed views of the world, with highlights spanning 40 years.

The most recent event to make the list is coverage of 9/11, with the numbing images of airliners hurtling into New York’s World Trade Centre in 2001.

Compiler Hugo Davenport included Big Brother for kickstarting the interest in reality TV.

He says of the show: “This multimedia event – pointless, trivial, banal, but obsessive – stoked the appetite for talent-free celebrity.”

The list shows 1969 was a golden year for television landmarks. It included the launch of classic comedy series Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the moon landing and an unprecedented peek into the world of the Windsors in Royal Family.