Jade Goody 'represented wretched Britain', says Sir Michael Parkinson

Source - Daily Telegraph

 

Goody, who died of cervical cancer at the age of 27, was regarded by many as a national treasure who overcame the disadvantages of her birth to achieve fame and fortune.

 

Her supporters included the presenter Stephen Fry, who hailed her as "a kind of Princess Di from the wrong side of the tracks". However, Sir Michael was damning in his judgment of Goody and the media circus which surrounded her in life and in death.

 

"When we clear the media smoke screen from around her death what we're left with is a woman who came to represent all that's paltry and wretched about Britain today. She was brought up on a sink estate, as a child came to know both drugs and crime, was barely educated, ignorant and puerile. Then she was projected to celebrity by Big Brother and from that point on became a media chattel to be manipulated and exploited till the day she died."

 

Writing in the Radio Times, Sir Michael named celebrities whom he deemed to be worthy role models. "Certain people gift you ambition. When I saw Tom Graveney I wanted to be a professional cricketer. When I first set eyes on Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca I wanted to marry her. And seeing Alan Whicker on television gave me the idea that a life in telly might be fun," he said, adding: "One out of three ain't bad."

 

Thousands lined the streets on Saturday to pay their respects to Goody as her funeral cortege made its way from her childhood home of Bermondsey, south London to the church in Buckhurst Hill, Essex. Giant screens relayed the service to the tearful crowd outside, and proceedings were broadcast live on television.

 

Her coffin was accompanied by floral wreaths which spelled out the 'Jade-isms' which made her famous. One said 'East Angula', a reference to Goody's belief that such a place existed and constituted a foreign country. She left school with no qualifications after a tough childhood on a council estate, with drug addicts for parents. The Channel Four show Big Brother transformed her life and made her a multi-millionaire.

 

John Finagin, Goody's former teacher, spoke at her funeral and denied that her lack of education equated with ignorance. "Never make the mistake of thinking that Jade was not intelligent. Anyone who can run a media career and a business has to be really, really, smart."

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Parky's words are somewhat (and surprisingly given his "nice guy" image) harsh, but I think it needs saying......

 

Thoughts.....?

 

Very shocked at Parky. Brave to come out with it, I doubt many would even if they thought it.

 

I dunno I'm no Jade fan but I think I still feel a little uncomfortable reading that....it doesn't really need to be said. We all have our opinions of Jade and her life. Don't think he should have said that, just yet at least.

Sorry, but he's right. And out of the thousands of people who are 'grieving' for their lost Princess, how many would have touched her with a barge pole in 2007?

Sorry, but he's right. And out of the thousands of people who are 'grieving' for their lost Princess, how many would have touched her with a barge pole in 2007?

Exactly. The public, by and large, are so hypocritical in this country. If The Sun or Simon Cowell tell them something's good then they love it, even if they've hated it before it got some publicity.

 

Parky is 100% SPOT ON!

Sorry, but he's right. And out of the thousands of people who are 'grieving' for their lost Princess, how many would have touched her with a barge pole in 2007?

Agreed...everyone hated her two years ago...now everyone loves her because she had cancer. People don't love Jade, they love the media.

Sorry but he can't get anymore right.

That is one thing I love about yorkshiremen they tell it as it is :thumbup:

 

Clarkson, Fred Trueman, Parky and so on

 

He is 100% spot on

he is right, he may be a little harsh but he is right.

 

 

and my Godmother is his PA lol, any complaints and i can get them to him :lol:

I agree with Ry. While I never thought much of Jade, there is no point in Parky mentioning his feelings at this stage. It smacks of his insensitivity and all it's going to result in is some publicity for himself...hypocritical, much?

That is one thing I love about yorkshiremen they tell it as it is :thumbup:

 

Clarkson, Fred Trueman, Parky and so on

 

He is 100% spot on

 

..... Geoffrey Boycott, Brian Clough, Harvey Smith.....

 

But then again Michael has previously labelled Max Clifford as "a celebrity Piranha", so it is hardly a surprise.

 

He is of course 100% spot on. Coming after the back pedalling by the usually choleric Charlie Brooker on his BBC3 Newswipe show last week I'm glad someone I've always respected has come out and said what needed to be said.

 

 

 

 

couldnt agree more .... the whole circus stinks.

However he was not the first celebrity to be less than sychophantic towards the Jade Goody circus:

 

Count me out of the tawdry Jade Goody freak show

by Will Self

thefirstpost.co.uk

FIRST POSTED MARCH 22, 2009

 

The public’s grotesque fascination with the reality TV star’s death was a botched catharsis of an inability to deal with its own mortality.

A union between a compulsively attention-seeking and ignorant racist wearing a dress donated by Mohamed Fayed, and a golf-club wielding thug, which was attended by Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, together with assorted superannuated pop singers, while Max Clifford span a line and wangled publicity deals from Richard Desmond's OK! magazine and Living TV.

 

On the face of it the wedding of Jade Goody and Jack Tweed was every single little thing every right-thinking man and woman in this country has come to loathe - the very recrudescence of the canker that infests the social body.

 

Yet to read the newspaper accounts you would've thought the tale of this gallows mesalliance was the contemporary version of Abelard and Heloise. And to set the seal of official approval on the Goody-Tweed nuptials, there was none other than our presiding fairy Godmother, the Justice Secretary, Jack Straw.

 

We’ll gladly look the Grim Reaper in the face, as long as it’s through a TV screen

 

It would be easy enough to dismiss Straw's relaxation of Tweed’s tagging restrictions as sheer media grandstanding - after all, he could've done so on the quiet - but I fear nothing is that straightforward, excepting possibly Goody's motivation.

 

JG Ballard once observed that "for a writer, death is always a career move". But as talent has been democratised in our society, so too has its prerequisites - now, death is also a career move for reality TV stars, however, unlike those who can expect posthumous royalties, the pay-out has to be on the nail.

 

It would be a hard-hearted cynic who would deny Goody the opportunity to earn her own bloody money, and so provide for her two young sons after she's gone. Well, I am a hard-hearted cynic - but I'm not gainsaying her that right, I'm merely dissenting from the grotesque sentimentalising of what is little more than a modern freak show.

 

It's death that's to blame - of course; death, and more specifically our collective need to at once gaze fixedly upon the memento mori of other people's extinction, while carefully averting our eyes from our own extinction and that of our loved ones.

 

Whether it's an assisted suicide in Switzerland, or a cancer sufferer in suburban Essex, we're happy to look the Grim Reaper full in the face, so long as that face is seen through a television screen, or a grille of newsprint. Our public celebration of death is only the botched catharsis we undergo, trying to cope with our inability to deal with it in private.

 

I've had cause to remark before on what a curious fact it is that in the lifetime of the average Briton, 90 per cent of the expenditure on his or her healthcare occurs in the last six weeks of life. In such a strange world Alan Johnson should be dubbed 'Secretary of State for Death' - not health.

 

Shorn of any religious faith - and the stoicism that, rightly or wrongly, it inculcates - we go to our deaths sedated, palliated, screened off from public view, and attended by the same teams of medics that ushered us into this life.

 

Our overriding concern about our leave-taking from this world - given that we have no belief in the existence of any other - is that it be painless, and that we cause the minimum of distress to our families (given that they, too, are devoid of any stoicism).

 

The much-trumpeted view that our willingness to bear witness to Jade Goody's expiration is an example of how healthy our attitude to death is, is exactly the reverse of the case.

 

Goody may well be dying now because of her own capacity for denial - she ignored the follow-up letters following her cervical screening - but it's those who ignore the tawdriness of her demise, while claiming her as a Diana-type saint of public health awareness, who exhibit the most flagrant denial, and how strange it is that the justice secretary should be one of their number.

 

 

Wow - ROFL - the idiot that invented that article has a MAJOR problem with his own mortality. My personal belief is that we're nothing more than a bunch of chemicals and when we die, that's it...nothing. Sad to admit the reality, but it is what it is. Sure, if you have an idea of your impending doom, you can make your decisions on how best to make it easier/more bearable for those left behind. Jade did what she thought was best in the circumstances. No amount of momentos or legacy are going to influence the lives of those who have outlived her, but in our capitalist society, she's done about as much for them as she can - kudos to her for that!

 

Moreover, I have to laugh at the opening line of that article: "The public’s grotesque fascination with the reality TV star’s death was a botched catharsis of an inability to deal with its own mortality." Nobody that I know of had any "fascination" grotesque or otherwise regarding Jade's death. It was unfortunate, sad even, but everyone that I know, without exception, felt that the media coverage was extreme, in fact disturbing. People understood that Jade was just out for money for her family - does anyone have any evidence that what occurred actually sold any more papers or resulted in any extra viewers to any related programmes? This is all far more of a circus than the matter itself.

He's right. And he wasn't attacking Goody ... he was attacking the media (and public) reaction to her plight and her death. I think the amount of what I would sum up as 'paid mourners' (paid in this case being having your biro-decorated mug in the tabloids rather than a few 'readies') at her funeral illustrates to the end what Parky was getting at. Just shows you ... these people would turn up at the opening of an envelope to get themselves their 15 seconds of fame. I wonder how many of them attend their own relatives funerals.

 

So in short ... I posted here to defend Parky and not to add to an attack on Jade.

 

Norma

 

 

This was one of the top10 stories on Yahoo!7 this morning. :mellow:

 

So this quote has managed to reach Australia.

Wow - ROFL - the idiot that invented that article has a MAJOR problem with his own mortality. My personal belief is that we're nothing more than a bunch of chemicals and when we die, that's it...nothing. Sad to admit the reality, but it is what it is. Sure, if you have an idea of your impending doom, you can make your decisions on how best to make it easier/more bearable for those left behind. Jade did what she thought was best in the circumstances. No amount of momentos or legacy are going to influence the lives of those who have outlived her, but in our capitalist society, she's done about as much for them as she can - kudos to her for that!

 

Moreover, I have to laugh at the opening line of that article: "The public’s grotesque fascination with the reality TV star’s death was a botched catharsis of an inability to deal with its own mortality." Nobody that I know of had any "fascination" grotesque or otherwise regarding Jade's death. It was unfortunate, sad even, but everyone that I know, without exception, felt that the media coverage was extreme, in fact disturbing. People understood that Jade was just out for money for her family - does anyone have any evidence that what occurred actually sold any more papers or resulted in any extra viewers to any related programmes? This is all far more of a circus than the matter itself.

 

I totally disagree, and think Self is spot on, I honestly dont know how on earth you can label the man an "idiot", he's an incredibly intelligent and artculate guy, whether you agree with his opinions or not. Yet another example of the anti-intellectual culture in this country :rolleyes: .... Regardless, there WAS a morbid fascination with Goody's death, about the only thing missing from it was a fukkin' internet Jade Goody Death Clock.... The fact that it was all over the tabloids and continually mentioned on TV should really be an indicator of that.... Two other famous, and infinitely more talented, people (Wendy Richard and Natasha Richardson) died in that two week period leading up to Jade's death, yet, the press reporting of their deaths was far more restrained, far less exploitative, their families wishing to show a hell of lot more dignity and grieve in PRIVATE, and not turn it into a circus freakshow with Max Clifford as the ringmaster.....

 

And all this ridiculous boo-hooing surrounding her death was frankly puke-inducing.... Andrew is right, who the hell would've touched her with a barge pole a year or two back.... The media needs to STOP turning her into some martyred fukkin' saint and see her for the deeply flawed individual that she was.....

I'm sorry, but i have the proof her death was over milked.

 

It was HEADLINE news on Channels 7 and 10 in Australia. Nobody across here knew who she was yet they heard all about it, Yahoo Australia reported all the updates and they all made the top10 headlines thing that sits on the main page.

 

Without Max, she wouldn't have had any coverage in Aus.

 

I never minded Jade, but i was sick of her and the bloody Cancer by the time she passed on. I hoped she would recover, so the media could get back to reporting the bloody news. However, it seems she'll be with us for a wee while yet with articles like this one coming out of the woodwork for the next month.

 

sorry, rant over. One person can only take so much of Jade Goody. Surprisingly not many of the news reports have contained her famous catch phrase 'Am I Minging?' to which my mother and i would yell 'Yes!' at the TV for the summer she was in BB

I totally disagree, and think Self is spot on, I honestly dont know how on earth you can label the man an "idiot", he's an incredibly intelligent and artculate guy, whether you agree with his opinions or not. Yet another example of the anti-intellectual culture in this country :rolleyes: .... Regardless, there WAS a morbid fascination with Goody's death, about the only thing missing from it was a fukkin' internet Jade Goody Death Clock.... The fact that it was all over the tabloids and continually mentioned on TV should really be an indicator of that.... Two other famous, and infinitely more talented, people (Wendy Richard and Natasha Richardson) died in that two week period leading up to Jade's death, yet, the press reporting of their deaths was far more restrained, far less exploitative, their families wishing to show a hell of lot more dignity and grieve in PRIVATE, and not turn it into a circus freakshow with Max Clifford as the ringmaster.....

 

And all this ridiculous boo-hooing surrounding her death was frankly puke-inducing.... Andrew is right, who the hell would've touched her with a barge pole a year or two back.... The media needs to STOP turning her into some martyred fukkin' saint and see her for the deeply flawed individual that she was.....

 

No. This is the whole point that you seem to consistently miss. There was a morbid over-exposure via the media of the whole story, no-one denies that. However, by and large the public appear to have been well and truly fed up with having the story "shoved down their throats". I'll bet the viewing figures for her funeral were mediocre at best. Meanwhile, "the BBC viewing figures were headed by the tribute to Wendy Richard". I have no idea where Mr Self imagines that any "public fascination" has occurred and in relation to their popularity at the time, I believe the coverage given to the deaths of Wendy Richard and Natasha Richardson was fitting.

No. This is the whole point that you seem to consistently miss. There was a morbid over-exposure via the media of the whole story, no-one denies that. However, by and large the public appear to have been well and truly fed up with having the story "shoved down their throats". I'll bet the viewing figures for her funeral were mediocre at best. Meanwhile, "the BBC viewing figures were headed by the tribute to Wendy Richard". I have no idea where Mr Self imagines that any "public fascination" has occurred and in relation to their popularity at the time, I believe the coverage given to the deaths of Wendy Richard and Natasha Richardson was fitting.

 

^

 

:rolleyes:

 

Magazine's Jade Goody tribute edition is not OK!

John Plunkett Media Guardian.co.uk

 

Jade Goody's terminal illness has barely been off the red-top front pages, and OK! has now published a tribute issue with her 'final words' – while she is still alive.

 

Its exclusive coverage of Jade Goody's wedding boosted OK! magazine's sales to nearly 2 million, but its latest edition – a Jade Goody "official tribute issue 1981-2009" featuring her "last words" – is at best premature, at worst in appalling bad taste.

 

The first of three wedding issues of Richard Desmond's celebrity gossip magazine sold 1.8 million, according to reports in MediaWeek, more than three times its average circulation of 508,504 in the second half of 2008.

 

Coverage of Goody's plight – rarely off the tabloid front pages – has also boosted sales of the Sun, according to a senior executive on the paper, a rise that is likely to be mirrored by its red-top rivals.

 

Goody has featured on sixteen of the Sun's last seventeen front pages. Its coverage is also thought to have contributed to a big rise in traffic to the Sun's website last month. Whilst the constant coverage of Jade Goody has led Sky News to report that traffic to their website is at its highest level since the investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

 

Where will all this coverage end? The only thing we can say for certain is that it won't end with Goody's untimely death. OK! seems to have got there already, with this week's edition, dated 24 March, headlined a "Jade Goody official tribute issue" promising her "final words" and "unseen pictures".

 

"In loving memory", says the strapline under the OK! logo. All of it is a "world exclusive", of course.

he's an incredibly intelligent and artculate guy, whether you agree with his opinions or not. Yet another example of the anti-intellectual culture in this country :rolleyes: ....

 

you mean like russel brand? :lol: