Celebrity: A 21st Century Story

BBC2, Tuesday- Friday, 9pm It’s time to take the superficial cultural commodity we know as celebrity seriously: after all, it occupies so much of our broadcast and print media, and is for many people the decisive influence in consumer purchases and lifestyles.

This four-part series charts the rise in this brand of fame through archive clips and interviews with not only the celebrities themselves but also the managers, TV programme-makers and journalists who all help to shape their stories.

In the opening episode, ‘Nasty’ Nick Bateman tells of becoming a household name as the villain in the first series of Big Brother, and Katie Price explains how she manipulated acres of tabloid coverage to her own advantage, while Rebecca Loos recalls virtually losing control of her life after the sensational revelation of her affair with David Beckham (right).