IT WAS the year celebrities were done out of a job by the man and woman in the street. Quite why the actors' union Equity hasn't launched a campaign to protect members is unclear but they should have been worried, very worried, as the public took over TV during the past 12 months.

An actor's chances of employment were poor unless they were called Sarah Lancashire, Michelle Collins, Robson Green, Ross Kemp, David Jason or John Thaw. Golden handcuffs deals kept them gainfully employed as they flitted from drama to drama.

Anyone else would have found the going tough job-wise as TV's obsession with real people doing real things showed no signs of abating and reached new heights with Channel 4's Big Brother.

This was the ultimate ordinary people show with an ability to generate news stories and spin-off publicity like no other. It all rather gazumped BBC1's social experiment Castaway. Like the two dozen or so people stuck on the island of Taransay, the programme was left high and dry while the antics of Craig, Mel and the others captured the attention.

Big Brother was the inevitable next step given the fascination for spying on other people. What began with observational series like Airport, Driving School and The Cruise developed into the Big Brother phenomenon. This was promoted as a sort of live sex show (see real people bonk on camera) but developed into something much more Machiavellian as Nasty Nick started playing mind games. To cap it all, the winner gave all the money to charity. They couldn't have hoped for more if they'd have got Kay Mellor to write the script.

When not starring in docu-soaps the public were having their homes redecorated and gardens remodelled by amateur performers like Charlie Dimmock. Many of these people became personalities in their own right, available for hire. Witness the new job opportunities for airport worker Jeremy Spake and singer Jane McDonald.

The public is no longer satisfied with just 15 minutes of fame. Look at how the Big Brother housemates have continued in the entertainment industry by making records, presenting TV shows or just getting drunk at parties.

McDonald even aided and abetted other ordinary folk in their quest for fame and fortune in her Star For A Night talent-spotting series. Others continued dressing up as famous singers in Stars In Their Eyes. The real thing - performers who've been doing it for a living for years - could hardly get a look in.

Even quiz shows like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and The Weakest Link put the focus on ordinary folk. If you can call a well-off relative of Camilla Parker Bowles ordinary, that is.

The performances given in the docu-soaps are as controlled - and dare one suggest, set up? - as any TV drama. Viewers are only allowed to see what the producer wants them to see. Big Brother may have had cameras on housemates 24 hours a day but all we saw was an hour or so a day footage.

The public also starred in another type of documentary series that filled the schedules this year - the Garages, Builders, Neighbours etc From Hell type shows along with those featuring amateur and police video footage of life's little mishaps. How much longer the public will be willing both to participate and to watch real life series is debatable. Schedulers are just grateful for something that's cheaper to make than expensive drama series.

There was also a trend to glue together clips with a theme in programmes such as I Love The Seventies, TV's Greatest Hits and The Top Ten of practically anything you could think of.

As for real actors, there are signs people are tiring of the same old faces, like Green and Kemp, appearing all the time. Their ratings aren't what they used to be.

With the deaths of Inspector Morse and Victor Meldrew, TV is desperately in need of new characters with a potential long life. ITV must be glad that old-timers Peak Practice, Heartbeat, Where The Heart Is and London's Burning are still guaranteed to pull in big audiences despite cast changes. Cold Feet proved it wasn't a one-series wonder while The Bill had a makeover which left the Sun Hill series looking healthier than ever.

The BBC can count on the long-running hospital drama Casualty and the excellent Clocking Off is set to return in 2001. Other of Auntie's big hopes flopped, notably BBC2's expensive Gormenghast and the dot.com drama Attachments which began promisingly but faded fast.

Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer took a risk by resurrecting the old 1960s/1970s series Randall And Hopkirk Deceased. A second series was commissioned by the BBC although the ratings dropped off alarmingly after the disappointing opening episode, which demonstrated that acting wasn't perhaps the duo's strong point.

BBC2 spiced up Madame Bovary as did Channel 4 with Anna Karenina. Not so much costume dramas as out-of-their-costume dramas. The stars of the latter, Helen McCrory and Kevin McKidd, also featured in the legal eagle series North Square although this, one of the year's best drama offerings, inexplicably failed to find a large audience. We can only hope Channel 4 schedulers have faith and request another series. Deserving a better slot was club culture drama Tinsel Town, which was buried in the BBC2 schedules late at night.

Perhaps the scarcity of acting jobs accounted for so many entertainers agreeing to appear on chat shows Ruby and So Graham Norton to confess things that would make even a Sunday tabloid reporter blush.

Nominees for the most overexposed TV personality again included a pair of Carols - Vorderman and Smilie - although Davina McCall is catching them up fast. The winner, though, must be This Morning's Judy Finnigan who was left standing in her bra after her dress slipped down at the National TV Awards.

And 2000 was the year that the News At Ten, made the news. ITV was ordered to restore the programme to its rightful place only to have recently-installed BBC boss Greg Dyke beat them to it by moving the Nine O'Clock News to 10pm. It was a drama worthy of being made into a TV series.

A royal in soapland

PRINCE Charles, one of the stars of the real life soap called The Royal Family, gave the seal of approval to the equally long-running but fictional soap Coronation Street. He made a guest appearance, below, in the live 40th anniversary episode of Corrie, one of the highlights of the soap year. The Weatherfield celebrations topped 12 months in which soaps have continued to exert an iron grip over the schedules. With Emmerdale switching to five times a week and the planned return of Crossroads, the future is bright for soap fans.

Followers of Home And Away can look forward to its return on Channel 5 in 2001. It's been off screens since ITV lost the rights and stuck to the clause in the contract forbidding anyone else showing the Aussie series for a year. The year has seen soaps tackle "the last taboo" - male rape in Hollyoaks - while both the Street and EastEnders had schoolgirl pregnancies although the stories of Sarah Louise and Sonia had very different outcomes.

Arrivals have included the Slater family in EastEnders. They're brash and trashy but we love 'em, although we wouldn't want to meet Mo in a dark alley. It was hello again to the Street's Liz McDonald (still wearing curtain pelmets instead of skirts), Emmerdale's posh Lady Tara and the original Nasty Nick (Cotton) in Albert Square.

The goings included Brookie's window cleaner Sinbad, Emmerdale's big Mandy Dingle and Neighbours' Billy Kennedy. More permanent exits were made by Brookie's Susannah Morrissey (pushed down the stairs by ex-hubby Max) and Emmerdale's Sarah Sugden (died in a barn fire while enjoying rumpy-pumpy with her toyboy lover). The most tearful death was that of dying Ethel in EastEnders, helped on her way by best friend Dot Cotton.

Chain-smoking Dot was one of an increasing number of soap characters who found themselves helping police with their inquiries. The Street's Jim McDonald was banged up for manslaughter and Kathy was arrested after chaining herself to a lorry in a protest against Tate Haulage. But the prize soap guy must be William Roache who's been playing Ken Barlow, man and boy, for 40 years.