As Julian Cole is away this week, STEPHEN LEWIS takes a look at the Minster FM Big Brother joke farce.

There are red faces and red faces. We all do some pretty daft things from time to time: things that, if they became public knowledge, would have us squirming with embarrassment and praying for the floor to open up beneath our feet. But there has to be some limit to our ability to make ourselves look like idiots, surely?

Apparently not. In just about the most monumentally stupid prank it is possible to imagine, some bright spark at York-based Minster FM decided it would be a great idea to cash in on the popularity of the hit Channel 4 TV show Big Brother - and stage the radio station's own Big Brother-style 'eviction'.

Staff were asked by managers to vote for their 'least favourite' colleague in a secret ballot. Presenter James Watt was then called out of his show on Monday and promptly sacked - leaving show producer Julie Cummings to finish the broadcast alone.

Somebody, presumably, thought this would be a good joke - and a chance to get some good publicity at the same time. At least I assume it was intended as a joke: although how, when the sacking of James was all too real, is hard to see. Even the press release sent out by Minster shortly afterwards didn't seem to know quite where it stood - an indication, presumably, of the state of mind (if they can be said to have minds) of the people who sent it. 'Breakfast Show's James is voted out!' it trumpeted (ha, ha), before adding that what had begun as a 'joke' had turned more serious. 'Radio is a tough industry and no-one is indispensable', staff were apparently told.

Charming. I'm sure all Minster's hard-working staff are resting easier in their beds this week as a result.

James, understandably, didn't see the funny side. He was, in the words of one anonymous station spokesman, 'very upset'. Not many other people seem to have seen the funny side either: probably because there isn't one. The station, apparently, was inundated with phone calls about the stunt - prompting a U-turn by 'red-faced' Minster FM bosses, who pledged James would be re-instated. Lucky James.

In a way, though, it's easy to understand how a local radio station desperate for a bit of glamour could have fallen into this trap.

Big Brother is, after all, the talk of the town just about wherever you go. Why not hitch a ride on its coat-tails?

Well, for one simple reason. The TV Big Brother is, as the contestants keep reminding both themselves and us, 'only a game show'. Sacking people is for real.

It's always worrying when the dividing line between TV and reality begins to blur. It's probably one of the consequences of the kind of 'reality TV' that's been so popular recently, and of which Big Brother is such a classic example.

Real life can come to seem like the game show: and the flickering events unfolding on our TV screens the far more gripping reality.

The thing about Big Brother is that it is actually great TV. The unmasking of 'nasty' Nick Bateman was one of the most extraordinary, riveting TV moments I have ever seen.

What made it so gripping was that we all know people like Nick: devious, manipulative types who pretend to be the nice guy while stabbing their mates and colleagues in the back.

It's one of the tragedies of the society we live in that very often they're the ones who succeed.

Usually, we're powerless to do anything about it. Suddenly, for one all-too-brief, joyous moment we were able to watch as one of these natural 'winners' got his comeuppance at the hands of a bunch of ordinary Joes.

It's only a game show, though, and we - and Minster - would do well to remember it.