"Jade: the Reality Star Who Changed Britain" - 9pm tonight (Wed), Channel 4.
Anyone watching?
First in a three-part series on Jade Goody's life! 
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Nope.
Her mother has too much to answer for. She was betrayed RIP.
Baz posted:I couldn’t abide her
Some things you should just let go Baz.
I think this is one. No offence to Eugene. At all 
Blame C4.
Think the first husband is bringing the kids up well though.
velvet donkey posted:Nope.
Her mother has too much to answer for. She was betrayed RIP.
I'm interested in how they portray the "re-invention" of Jade while she was still in the house (BB3).
BBLB effectively discarded their own "rules" concerning lack of bias towards HMs, particularly with regards to appearances by friends and family. Jackiey was given a much higher profile on BBLB than any previous HM's F&F, and I think that helped create a lot of problems further down the line...
Nor me Baz and I have a holiday home in East Anglia.
Alchohol drove that series.
velvet donkey posted:Baz posted:I couldn’t abide her
Some things you should just let go Baz.
I think this is one. No offence to Eugene. At all
None taken, Velvet.
TBH, I've been undecided about whether I want to watch it at all. In the end, I'm interested to see how much "revisionism" there is in it (see my other comment re Jackiey and BBLB).
Regardless of my own thoughts on tonight's show, I hadn't seen it mentioned here, and felt other FMs should at least be informed about it so they can make up their own mind.... 
Eugene's Lair posted:velvet donkey posted:Nope.
Her mother has too much to answer for. She was betrayed RIP.
I'm interested in how they portray the "re-invention" of Jade while she was still in the house (BB3).
BBLB effectively discarded their own "rules" concerning lack of bias towards HMs, particularly with regards to appearances by friends and family. Jackiey was given a much higher profile on BBLB than any previous HM's F&F, and I think that helped create a lot of problems further down the line...
I hear you Eugene but she had a few high profile apologists after Shilpa. Look no further than the donut Carol Malone.
Eugene's Lair posted:velvet donkey posted:Baz posted:I couldn’t abide her
Some things you should just let go Baz.
I think this is one. No offence to Eugene. At all
None taken, Velvet.
TBH, I've been undecided about whether I want to watch it at all. In the end, I'm interested to see how much "revisionism" there is in it (see my other comment re Jackiey and BBLB).
Regardless of my own thoughts on tonight's show, I hadn't seen it mentioned here, and felt other FMs should at least be informed about it so they can make up their own mind....
velvet donkey posted:Eugene's Lair posted:velvet donkey posted:Nope.
Her mother has too much to answer for. She was betrayed RIP.
I'm interested in how they portray the "re-invention" of Jade while she was still in the house (BB3).
BBLB effectively discarded their own "rules" concerning lack of bias towards HMs, particularly with regards to appearances by friends and family. Jackiey was given a much higher profile on BBLB than any previous HM's F&F, and I think that helped create a lot of problems further down the line...
I hear you Eugene but she had a few high profile apologists after Shilpa. Look no further than the donut Carol Malone.
Quite a few people - both inside and outside her family - saw her as a meal ticket... 
I was reminded recently that those ghouls at OK magazine were running TV adverts for their "tribute special" before she died!
I have seen the adverts Eugene, but was somewhat put off by the trailer, her mother saying "she went in to the house to get back her childhood". Unless I'm proved wrong, what I saw of Jade never would leave me to believe she had that deeper thought process. Also, would going into the BB house be the right place for that?
Anyways, I'll pop back in and see what your review is like.
I’m watching it ... there’s a certain amount of rewriting history as far as Jade is concerned. We haven’t got to the Shilpa moment yet, I am guessing that must be the next episode.
What is interesting is the whole pre social media world that it all took place in.
Worth watching I think?
Rexi posted:I’m watching it ... there’s a certain amount of rewriting history as far as Jade is concerned.
Oh yes... 
Baz posted:I won’t be watching it , but I’ll be interested to read your comments on it Eugene
No pressure, then... 
Overall, a fairly workmanlike and sometimes quite interesting show. Some things I didn't know; one or two nuggets; and - as I suspected - quite a bit of revisionism (though mostly by omission). I'm interested in seeing how the series develops (although I'm still struggling to see how it can last 3 episodes) but I think those who weren't keen on watching won't regret missing it...
General observation: Press bad; C4/Endemol only observers. 
Consistently bland comments from anyone involved in the show production; interesting but often guarded comments from Jade's agent John Noel; refreshingly honest comments from the press and Jackiey (though It'll be interesting to see if she remains so when we get to CBB5...)
Selective observations:
BB3:
Lots of omissions. A very bland run through of the audition process: no interview with Kate Lawler and no reference to the group audition where she met Jade (and which Jade was voted out from...). No mention - not even a still photo - of Alison Hammond, which is interesting as she also went in very loud and brash like Jade, but burnt out very quickly.
PJ, who looks like he hasn't aged a day, claimed that he and Jade only kissed - which was quickly shot down by a C4 bod who revealed that C4 management were forced to invoke their "Penetration Protocols".
For my money, Alex Sibley came out the best of all the interviewees: a true gentleman. In retrospect, Jade's waltz with him at the final night party comes across as probably her only truly sweet moment of the series.
Revisionism:
Key line from Davina: "She came fourth, but she was the winner."
Anyone who wasn't aware of what actually happened in the show would never have guessed that Jade was very lucky to survive her only "normal" eviction night (she'd have definitely gone if Adele hadn't been up too). or that she finished last in the final "Vote to Win".
Graham Norton's change in opinion of Jade was shown, but without any interview or context. No reference as far as I could see of BBLB at all, so no reference to them effectively letting Avid Merrion campaign for Jade, nor to the unprecedented coverage they gave to Jackiey.
The overriding line that Jade was loved by other working-class viewers while being looked down-upon by snooty media-types felt pat and unconvincing, although the observation that she displayed a canny business sense after the show rang true (although how much John Noel's contributed to developing that felt debateable).
The Press:
Absolutely no acknowledgement that Endemol were passing stories to the press during BB3 (an open secret at the time), thus giving the false impression that the press - and by extension, the public - gradually warmed to Jade on their own.
In contrast, several gentlemen of the press were only too eager to play the "bad guys"...
Kevin O'Sullivan of the Mirror was the most brazen: completely unapologetic about coining the "pig" moniker WRT Jade, and quite proud of how he performed a "reverse ferret" at the end of the series (a 180-degree reversal; from opposing someone to supporting them without acknowledging the change ).
Dan Evans was almost as brazen, admitting that he'd hacked Jade's and Jeff Brazier's phones. Jeff was much calmer and diplomatic than I would have been under the circumstances, as he described how Jade was given a "new" mobile phone that had been pre-tampered with! 
For me though, the most unexpected nugget was photographer Danny Hayward. He was quite open about how he and Jade carefully set up "candid" photos, which were then sold to the press as paparazzi shots. In a pre-YouTube and Facebook world, their virtual creation of the candid photo shoot was probably a defining contribution to the Heat/OK magazine scene...
That is a good resume Eugene. Thanks.
Hope you're ticking along. I know good when I see it
Real good.
Let's see what Darren Adam has to say. I like him on topic.
Noite 
velvet donkey posted:Let's see what Darren Adam has to say. I like him on topic.
Noite
Night-night, Velvet.
Good read Eugene. Some of that I had forgotten entirely until you mentioned it.
Part 2 on C4 tonight, 9pm.
Looks like it's going to deal with CBB5...
I am on holiday atm with a friend in Southbourne, and she is refusing to watch it, so I will have tomwatch it on catch up.
I will pop back to read your review Eugene 👍
Baz posted:I look forward to reading your summary Eugene
Yes.
I'll take the opportunity here to state a big proviso for any posts that follow tonight:
Although I've been a huge fan of "proper" Big Brother since the very first episode, I've never bothered that much about CBB. I did watch the first series, but that was a very different beast: a proper charity show (for Comic Relief), that was actually broadcast on BBC1! 
I had a number of problems with the following series; not least the fact that they often coincided with my holidays, when I usually didn't have internet access. I would therefore generally watched the first episode for the company on "this" forum (i.e. originally the C4 one), and leave it at that. The one big exception was CBB5, where the furore led to me inevitably being sucked back in...
The upshot of all that is that I missed a lot of the early CBB5 episodes. Any comments I make tonight are therefore going to be based a lot less on my memory of the original series...
Episode 2 - General observations:
This episode felt more balanced than Episode 1, but there were still a fair number of sins by omission…
The show’s theme was clearly “rise and fall” – more specifically playing up on the irony of Jade being destroyed by the show that made her (Even more ironically, this notion was voiced by Max Clifford, who was notably missing from Ep. 1…)
Specific observations:
The Build-Up:
Some early attempts to imply hubris from Jade, with a claim she thought she could go to Hollywood “like Jason Statham”. (Someone in Ep.1 also claimed she was annoyed no one had told her she could – in theory – become Mayor of London…) What was also mentioned (and I’d forgotten) was that Jade’s autobiography had already come out: there was a clear desire from the programme-makers to imply this created family tensions, but Jackiey was doggedly unforthcoming…
The show got into CBB very quickly, after only a brief introduction to Jack Tweed (who referred to himself as a “typical Essex boy”, but was largely kept in the background afterwards). Jackiey implied that she and Jack were in the dark about going on CBB until very close to the start, but then she went on about the extensive psychological tests… Whatever the truth about that, it’s pretty clear that Jackiey would never have passed a properly-run screening…
Jade’s agent talked about her being offered £50k to appear, but notably didn’t mention how much Jack and Jackiey earned. My memory’s shaky, but it was definitely in the press that each of them was getting at least as much (and almost certainly more) than Jade. Although never stated outright at the time, there was a strong suspicion that their strange pay arrangements were tax-related…
CBB5:
Whether genuine or not, Carole Malone gave the impression of not being phased by the Goody clan, although she did admit that she was probably only in the show in the first place because Jade was there, with the producers liking the irony of a journalist who’d slagged Jade off being forced to be her servant. (For those who don’t remember, the show had a central “Masters and Servants” theme.)
What I’d forgotten was just how badly certain other HM’s took to the Goodys; on (literally) climbing the wall out of the compound, Donny Tourette appropriately shouted “I’m not f***ing waiting hand and foot on some f***ing moron and their family.”
I’d also definitely forgotten just how spectacularly rude Ken Russell was to them. Executive Producer Paul Osborne claimed Ken was a huge fan of the show, which struck me as a very odd comment: I definitely recall that after leaving the house Ken gave the distinct impression that not only did he know little about it but he’d been effectively conned into appearing with the promise of being amongst the likes of Germaine Greer – missing out the points that (1) Germaine had walked out on her series, and (2) Ken was that year’s Germaine…
On the plus side, one of the show’s nuggets was a hilarious story about Leo Sayer: on walking angrily out of the house, he insisted that he was only going to speak to the police. In the car park, he saw a police car, so immediately got into it. What he didn’t realize, however, was that the studio was also used by “The Bill”, and the car was one of theirs…
Of the other HMs: I don’t recall a single shot of “H” or Dirk Benedict. Jermaine and Cleo were shown but largely silent. Significantly, Danielle and Jo were barely shown. What followed – whether rightly or wrongly – would concentrate almost entirely on Jade…
Race or Class?:
Even now, I still find it hard to understand just how much difficulty Jackiey had pronouncing “Shilpa”, and in retrospect it was clearly a forewarning. Carole Malone mentioned Jackiey’s mood swings, and how much difficulty Jade had trying to control her: she implied that Jackiey’s sudden, brutal eviction was deliberately designed to upset Jade and “set-up rows for the future”.
Compared with the first show, there seemed to be a greater degree of honesty and balance from the contributors this time round. Paul Morley was generally sympathetic to Jade and targeted the producers instead, implying that although they may not have intended the show to go in a particular direction, they were happy when it did. He gave the distinct impression that they dragged him onto the spinoff shows to try to maintain a veneer of control. Morley also still claims that the on-screen divisions were really down to class.
Krishnan Guru-Murphy, however, never bought into that, and has only ever seen it as racism. Guru-Murphy - who works on the C4 News - also made an interesting point about how the culture within C4 was (and remains) intrinsically liberal on race, and as such the channel was totally ill-equipped to deal with the developing race scandal. This was largely backed-up by Dermot O’Leary, who was very open about how those behind the scenes were instinctively geared-up for a cheery show full of light-hearted banter, and therefore were unable to cope with the sudden, dramatic, change in tone.
By comparison, Davina was rather disappointing. After the love-in of the first episode (important piece of trivia: She, Dermot, Russell Brand and Jade all shared the same agency), she was at least a bit more outspoken, referring to Jade, Jo and Danielle as a “gang” and actually using the word “bullying”, however she still seemed unable or unwilling to acknowledge that the show played any part in creating that atmosphere.
From then on, it felt largely like a montage of images we’d all rather wish we could forget. Gordon Brown on a business trip to India being surrounded by burning effigies and 27 local film crews! Tony Blair being forced to answer questions on it in Parliament! (My Mum, who was barely aware that “Big Brother” even existed, only ever knew of Jade as “that silly woman who caused us so much trouble in India”).
The in-house arguments and “behind-the-back” insults were inevitably curtailed a bit, but still came across as deeply shocking. To their credit, the programme-makers did show that, despite the press concentrating on it at the time, “Shilpa Poppadom” was actually the least-worst insult Jade used.
The Davina interview wasn’t shown, but Dermot’s interview with a desperately contrite Jade was. Most damning, however was – once again – Dan Evans from the News of the World who admitted that his paper’s interview with her was intentionally designed to cause her to break down crying…
Endemol’s Creative Director Phil Edgar-Jones talked about how he dreaded going to see Jade afterwards (“she’ll hold me responsible for destroying her life”). Oddly, though, he still seemed slightly surprised that she refused to see him, and that they barely spoke to each other after that…
The show finished with the tabloid headline "Goody Riddance", and a closing last line from Jackiey: “She wanted out. Not out of the Priory; out of life”.
It was meant to be a moving and portentous parting shot, but just felt a bit too on the nose.
I never bought into Jade as some star with anything like star quality/charisma
I don't get why people were interested in her.
Tbh I never liked her - and the Shilpa debacle was disgusting
Saint posted:I never bought into Jade as some star with anything like star quality/charisma
I don't get why people were interested in her.
Tbh I never liked her - and the Shilpa debacle was disgusting
I never particularly liked Jade either, but equally I thought the hate campaign against her during BB3 was disgusting. Not liking a HM is one thing, but actually travelling round to the studio just so you can shout "KILL THE PIG!" at them is quite another...
I've said before that it took me a long time as a viewer to forgive Graham Norton for his part in the vilification...
I could sort-of understand why some people were interested in her: in particular, I know a lot of teenage girls saw her as being much more representative of their lives than the rich, airbrushed celebrities usually served up to them as role models.
That said, I've always felt that her popularity was exaggerated - possibly as a backlash to the preceding hate campaign. When she died, I saw a BBC news report that described her as winning BB - in fact she came last out of four in the final Vote-to-Win, with barely 20% of the vote...
I never bought, or even read, any of the mags that featured her, nor did I ever buy her perfume or other products, but then I was never part of her target audience...
I fully agree with you about the Shilpa debacle. For me, the most heart-breaking moment was Shilpa's interview after she won. Jade had already apologized to Shilpa in the house, so she had a rough idea about what had been going on, however she hadn't fully grasped the sheer scale of it. She was expecting to be shown a few clips of dodgy insults, but instead had to sit through several minutes of continuous abuse, all the while trying to remain stoic.
It was deeply uncomfortable viewing...
Perhaps that's right - her "fame" was 'spin' in reaction to the hate campaign
But how big was the hate campaign?
Everything hyped to gain viewing figures
We'll never know
Just a reminder that the last part of this series is tonight (Wed) at 9pm on C4.
I'm probably not going to do a review of tonight's show. It's not going to be directly about BB, and TBH I'll probably find it too depressing.
That said: if they get into some general Reality TV observations I might reconsider, and if they have any of those gits from OK magazine on I'll definitely be venting some spleen!
Eugene's Lair posted:Just a reminder that the last part of this series is tonight (Wed) at 9pm on C4.
I'm probably not going to do a review of tonight's show. It's not going to be directly about BB, and TBH I'll probably find it too depressing.
That said: if they get into some general Reality TV observations I might reconsider, and if they have any of those gits from OK magazine on I'll definitely be venting some spleen!
Ok Eugene 
Baz posted:Eugene's Lair posted:Just a reminder that the last part of this series is tonight (Wed) at 9pm on C4.
I'm probably not going to do a review of tonight's show. It's not going to be directly about BB, and TBH I'll probably find it too depressing.
That said: if they get into some general Reality TV observations I might reconsider, and if they have any of those gits from OK magazine on I'll definitely be venting some spleen!
Ok Eugene
Sure enough: they had the guy from OK proudly holding up a copy of their "Jade tribute Issue". Even tried to regain some of the moral high ground with a story about a Sun photographer breaking into Jade's wedding.
It was perhaps inevitable, but there was way too much coverage of Max Clifford for my (and probably everyone-else's) liking. 
Again, Dan Evans from NotW gains some credit for his brutal honesty, with a story about how he was told “We need to get the first picture of her with no hair.” - and Max Clifford duly obliged...
I deliberately avoided most of the coverage of Jade's illness at the time because - even allowing for the claims that it encouraged young women to get smear tests done - I found it all unpleasantly mercenary and ghoulish. As a result, I'd forgotten just how extreme it got (worst was a tabloid claim - admittedly unproven - of a plot to photograph Jade in her coffin...) Seeing her enjoying her wedding even though she was in extreme pain was uplifting, though.
Throughout, the series persisted in trying to show how Jade was not just at the vanguard but even helped create the modern "Realty TV" world, but their closing attempt to link Jade's story with current aspects of celebrity culture of Jeremy Kyle, Love Island" suicides and even Nigel Farage ( ) just felt facile.
For me, the most perceptive comments came from Jeff Brazier: he felt that because Jade took responsibility for creating the hype around her, and because she was open about benefitting from that hype, she didn't feel able to wish it would all go away - even when "she could have done with a breather"... 
Eugene's Lair posted:Baz posted:Eugene's Lair posted:Just a reminder that the last part of this series is tonight (Wed) at 9pm on C4.
I'm probably not going to do a review of tonight's show. It's not going to be directly about BB, and TBH I'll probably find it too depressing.
That said: if they get into some general Reality TV observations I might reconsider, and if they have any of those gits from OK magazine on I'll definitely be venting some spleen!
Ok Eugene
Sure enough: they had the guy from OK proudly holding up a copy of their "Jade tribute Issue".
It was perhaps inevitable, but there was way too much coverage of Max Clifford for my (and probably everyone-else's) liking.
Again, Dan Evans from NotW gains some credit for his brutal honesty, with a story about how he was told “We need to get the first picture of her with no hair.” - and Max Clifford duly obliged...
I deliberately avoided most of the coverage of Jade's illness at the time because - even allowing for the claims that it encouraged young women to get smear tests done - I found it all unpleasantly mercenary and ghoulish. As a result, I'd forgotten just how extreme it got (worst was a tabloid claim - admittedly unproven - of a plot to photograph Jade in her coffin...) Seeing her enjoying her wedding even though she was in extreme pain was uplifting, though.
Throughout, the series persisted in trying to show how Jade was not just at the vanguard but even helped create the modern "Realty TV" world, but their closing attempt to link Jade's story with current aspects of celebrity culture of Jeremy Kyle, Love Island" suicides and even Nigel Farage (
For me, the most perceptive comments came from Jeff Brazier: he felt that because Jade took responsibility for creating the hype around her, and because she was open about benefitting from that hype, she didn't feel able to wish it would all go away - even when "she could have done with a breather"...
Thanks Eugene ....interesting summary ...as always
Jade Goody: Cancer charity hopes documentary serves as 'a reminder'
'The UK's largest cervical cancer charity has said it hopes a documentary about Jade Goody will serve as "a reminder" of the impact of the disease.
The finale of Channel 4's three-part Jade: The Reality Star Who Changed Britain aired on Wednesday.
Goody's illness and death in 2009, aged 27, led to a 12% spike in women getting NHS smear tests at the time.
But Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust said screening rates are now lower than ever and advised viewers to get checked.
"The episode is a new story for a younger generation and for others it's a reminder about the impact cervical cancer can have," the charity's head of communications Kate Sanger said.'