NOW the French Open Tennis has ended on ITV 4, my annual two-week association with the channel has also reached its conclusion.

I am now looking for something else to fill the void until Wimbledon starts in a few weeks’ time and I am adamant I won’t succumb to the horrors of Big Brother.

I well remember the first ever series, when good triumphed over evil and Nasty Nick was beaten by lovely Craig who gave all his prize money away.

Back then it really was a bit of an experiment to see how people would react to being holed up with strangers for days on end, with no way of knowing how they are perceived from the outside and following ridiculous rules for no reason at all.

I could just about argue the second series also threw up a lot of interesting questions about human behaviour while giving us an insight as to how people behave when they are cut off from the real world.

But way before it even crossed over to the slightly more salacious surroundings of Channel 5, bid Davina goodbye and took up with that nice lady who also does The Voice, Big Brother had stopped being important television.

Every effort goes into securing the most odious people they can lay their hands on – then they express repeated shock when there is a massive punch-up and some of them have to be forcibly removed from the house.

Their sole reason for being there is to become vaguely notable for their requisite 15 minutes when they eventually emerge from their Big Brother experience.

By comparison, the 2000 alumni are deadly boring.

They would never have been cast now, yet it was far more watchable than today.

Only Emma Willis, still coming across as an enthusiastic superfan, having started her association on one of the spin-off programmes when it was on Channel 4, makes it vaguely worth watching.

She must still like it since she has returned to work just five weeks after giving birth to her third child.

I can’t help thinking there are much better shows she could add her twinkly charm to.