It was 17 August 2000 and a group of people were huddled around a computer screen in the BBC TV newsroom, when suddenly there came a collective gasp. One of the group turned around and announced, very solemnly: "Nasty Nick's gone."
Nick Bateman - a housemate in the UK reality TV show Big Brother - was found to have attempted to "manipulate" his fellow contestant's votes, and was asked to leave the reality TV house. It would become front-page news.
The saga prompted a nationwide moral debate, not only about the incident but the very existence of the show.
Writing for the London Evening Standard one TV critic accused Big Brother's top executive Peter Bazalgette of "smearing excrement over our screens".
A reviewer from The Herald newspaper denounced the housemates as "fakers, chancers, dullards, no-marks, and dimwits".
