Village fate

The village of Grassington, previously tipped for the prize, has now been 'chosen' for the tv programme in which twelve outsiders

“move into a house in a beautiful rural village and the residents decide who they think is the right person to become a permanent member of their community and win the house”.

Villagers have dwelt on their fate. Will it all end in tears?

Mr Isaacs, who is the studio’s creative director, said his team was looking for a handful of strong local characters who would act as mentors to introduce people to the village.

He said he would like to get as many people as possible involved in voting people off the show, but had yet to “nail down” how it would work.

“We’ll always be available to engage people before, during and after production. We want our relationship to continue,” he said. “We do care about your community, but we also want to make exciting, grabby television.”

That's 'grabby' spelled with an 'a', I checked.

I can see there are understandable views on either side of the debate, but what's striking is where the power lies. Presumably residents did not proactively invite the tv company in, at least not collectively. Now that they have apparently accepted their nomination, I imagine residents are going to find themselves with less and less influence over what happens.