The uncomfortable truth about ‘David’s Dead’, 10 years later

It’s been 10 years since two words completely redefined the potential of reality television: ‘David’s dead’.

While the world wept over the actual death of David Bowie – easily one of the most important cultural trailblazers of all time, who quite literally changed how the world looked and music sounded – he also unintentionally gifted us another touchstone of entertainment, one that would arrive two days later inside the Celebrity Big Brother house, performed by a group of erratic reality stars.

On January 12, 2016, a television miracle that took place in the infamous Borehamwood bungalow, aired on Channel 5.

Angie Bowie, the singer’s ex-wife, was among the particularly eccentric housemates in a season that didn’t exactly lack for them. 

After being told that her ex-husband – and the father of her child – had died, she left the Diary Room visibly shaken and confused and clung to an unlikely and deeply unwise source of comfort: US reality star Tiffany Pollard, famed for her short fuse and unpredictable reactions.

By an extraordinary coincidence, David Gest, another of that year’s housemates, was unwell that day and had been sleeping in the bedroom, completely covered by a duvet – dead to the world, if not literally dead.

For reasons still inexplicable, Angie confided in Tiffany, firmly instructing her not to tell anyone else – before uttering the immortal words: ‘David’s dead.’

Tiffany collapsed almost instantly. A man she was living with had suddenly died, and she believed it was on her to carry the burden of this secret. 

Of course, she couldn’t keep it to herself – and it’s not unreasonable to agree she shouldn’t. Surely everyone needed to know that in the bedroom where they all slept was the corpse of Liza Minnelli’s ex-husband.

Naturally, the other housemates rushed to check on Gest, stunned to discover that he was, in fact, alive. But in an even stranger turn of events, instead of assuming there had been a mix-up, they accused Angie of lying.

It was the perfect storm, and it produced one of the most remarkable moments in television history. 

By then Celebrity Big Brother has already been defined by controversy, from Vanessa Feltz’s public breakdown in the very first series, to sparking protests burning effigies of Jade Goody overseas in India when she was blatantly racist to Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty. 

But David’s Dead was a different beast entirely.

A coincidentally timed historic event happening in the outside would had made its way into the Big Brother house, which in itself was unprecedented.

Few celebrity deaths grip a nation into mourning quite like David Bowie’s and ahead of the episode airing, there had been concern from fans that Angie was still in the house, unaware that her ex-husband had died. Despite their estrangement, viewers felt she needed to know. 

Had anyone other than Tiffany been at the centre of such staggering confusion, I don’t know if David’s Dead would be as entertaining as it remains today.

Well, it’s unlikely it would exist at all, but sandwiched between the hilarity was a genuine concern for Angie too, a 66-year-old woman shaken with grief who was being ferociously screamed at and accused of being a liar. 

Still, its comedic value remains unrivalled to this day. Nothing in television – or even in my life – has come close to matching it. 

I say that as someone whose relationship was founded on David’s Dead: my now-partner of five years responded to my Hinge prompt that it was the greatest moment in my existence. 

He wasn’t quite as impassioned about a Celebrity Big Brother meme as I was but he tells me now my enthusiasm made him forgive my second prompt (admitting to a phobia of cheese).

He agreed to a date that would turn into half a decade of me trying to convince that him David’s Dead is the single best miracle of our lifetime. 

I have spent countless nights recreating the chaos like a pantomime with friends in living rooms across the country after a dangerous amount of wine. To this day, probably hasn’t gone a week without talking about David’s Dead or watching it again on YouTube.

And with reality TV now so meticulously planned and safeguarded, nothing else will ever touch it – though Fiona’s grenade in this series of The Traitors did come close.

As a TV obsessive, and David’s Dead devotee, I should be looking for similar moments every time I watch the latest reality show, celebrity or otherwise.

But as the years have passed, I’ve come to realise the uncomfortable truth about David’s Dead – that it could, and should, never happen again today.

With the wisdom of hindsight, a moment involving such genuine distress and confusion should never have been allowed to unfold unchecked by producers. 

It’s astonishing, given what we now understand about the toll reality television can take on participants’ mental health, that so many people behind the Big Brother cameras watched on without intervening. 

That Tiffany Pollard was allowed to believe someone she’d spent just over a week living with had died, and that Angie Bowie could be ostracised after learning of her ex-husband’s death on national television, feels unthinkable today.

When you rewatch now, it seems crazy that the drama isn’t punctuated by Big Brother’s booming voice calling someone to the diary room or announcing the source of the confusion, leaving it to soap star John Partridge to spell things out for a hysterical Tiffany. 

It makes for uncomfortable viewing.

At the time, there was no meaningful concept of duty of care in reality TV. It’s an obvious expectation now, but it didn’t truly exist until participants’ welfare became impossible to ignore.

Love Island contestants Sophie Gradon and Mike Thalassitis took their own lives in 2018 and 2019 respectively, while the show’s host, Caroline Flack, then died by suicide in 2020. 

Of course, other factors beyond their TV appearances probably contributed to their deaths but the coincidence and timing of their suicides was meaningful and countless more contestants from Love Island and other shows claimed they’d been thrown to the wolves after appearing front of millions with little to no support. 

In the final Celebrity Big Brother on Channel 5 before it was eventually shelved, Roxanne Pallett accused fellow housemate Ryan Thomas of punching her ‘like a boxer’. He spent weeks believing the public would punish him for hitting a woman when he was so adamant that it never happened.

The relief on his face when he was not only validated by the public but won the series was an image I’ll never forget but, really, he shouldn’t have had to endure that paranoia for as long as he did. 

Thankfully, Tiffany brushed off the trauma (she briefly turned it into a business, selling David’s Dead merchandise until the venture came to an abrupt end months later when David Gest really did die, following a stroke in a London hotel room).

Gest himself had planned to cash in on the furore, too: before his death, he’d been preparing to embark on his David Gest Is Not Dead… But Alive With Soul tour, hosting a roster of soul legends including Dina Carroll, Russell Thompkins Jr, and Deniece Williams. 

David’s Dead has not aged badly; it’s just aged truthfully: it is both a jewel of reality television and a case study in problematic decision-making.

What unfolded in real time – to the complete astonishment of Celebrity Big Brother producers – was unprecedented. 

Even if they recognised how extraordinary the moment was, they couldn’t have understood the long-term impact such intense confusion and distress might have on the people involved.

It remains an unforgettable moment in entertainment history, just as remarkable a decade on. And in another 10 years, no matter how much our views have evolved, there’s no doubt it will still be hailed as the moment reality TV peaked.

Rightly so.

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