Paul Osborne

It was an interesting one for me because I had been on a working holiday in Australia in like 1999, 2000.

Prior to that, I'd worked on The Big Breakfast and a couple of other shows.

And I wasn't kind of sure if I wanted to work in TV.

And on the plane back to the UK, all the newspapers that were laid out were covering the press launch of the first ever series.

And so lots of pictures of Davina, the sort of first stirrings of controversy over what this brand new genre of TV would bring.

But I remember reading it or reading some of the articles and thinking, God, I wish I was working on that.

I wish I was around when it was being crewed up.

Ruth Wrigley, who was the exec on that first season, she'd worked on The Big Breakfast.

I'd been there as well.

And so I sensed that I might have been in that circle and might have been able to actually

get a role on it but I remember I came onto the show quite late.

The premiere of the first episode was happening just as I was coming in to work on the show.

Someone had left and I took over their role as the task guy and I remember watching it with some friends and it was the first episode so therefore it was the first 30 minute cut down of the show and I remember watching it and we just didn't know what was happening.

We're like, well, where's Davina?

Why isn't she there?

How does this work?

I do remember feeling at the time how brand new and completely alien it was as a concept.

Yes.

Bubbly.

Funny, energetic, nervous, very anxious about this big brother producer coming into her home.