Cancer victim Jade Goody came to represent "all that's paltry and wretched about Britain", Sir Michael Parkinson has said.
The broadcaster - writing in the Radio Times days after the reality TV star's funeral - also claimed she was "the perfect victim of our times".

He wrote: "Jade Goody has her own place in the history of television and, while it's significant, it's nothing to be proud of."

And he added: "Her death is as sad as the death of any young person, but it's not the passing of a martyr or a saint or, God help us, Princess Di."

Parkinson went on: "When we clear the media smokescreen 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."

The 74-year-old said it was not the fact that Goody became famous that was the problem.

"What bothers me is that the media first of all recommended we hate Jade Goody - "a slapper with a face like a pig", remember? - and shortly thereafter tried to persuade us to celebrate her." He said Goody was "the perfect victim of our times", adding that she "died to an orchestrated chorus of exploitation".

Goody, the mother of two sons, died on Mother's Day aged 27 after battling cervical cancer. Hundreds of fans lined the streets to pay their respects as her funeral procession made its way through the streets on Saturday.

He's 100% right, fair play to him for coming out and saying it.

The likes of the Sun and The News of the World have plummeted to new depths (yes hard, I know) over the last couple of weeks, completely embarrassing.

He probably is right but as he is so much in love with himself he still feels compelled to pronounce to us all how wise he is.

In all honesty he demonstrates in this outburst that he is as much a media whore and self publicist as she was.

She was a person who was built, destroyed then rebuilt by the media, she even died by the media.
The annoying thing is that millions of people fell for it.

Well done Parky for saying as it was.

Yeah but to be fair to Parky, he works in the media.

Princess Di was an overrated self interested slapper and everybody who went ga-ga when she died should have been machine gunned in their genitals.

Stunning work by Max Clifford it has to be said!
Love him or loathe him the way he dealt with Goody has to be his finest hour

I agree wholeheartedly with everything he says. She was loved for the fact that she was dieing of cancer, it wasn't too long ago that she was one of the most hated people in britian.

He should get an Oscar for the performance

As if anyone gives a flying feck what his opinions are now, or even did when we was an overated Yorkshire hack.

I read that slightly differently. Does he not mean by the 'god help us' to imply his disgust at the overblown media circus that followed the death of that other talentless, vacuous self-publicist.

I thought the piece was spot on. In a sane world the press coverage of Jade's death would have consisted of one line on page 17.'dim racist who was on TV 5 years ago, despite having no discernable talent, dies' would have covered it.

If you ask a class of children now what they want to do,more than half will say ' I want to be famous'.You ask'what would you like to be famous for, what talent do you have to make you stand out? ' . The kids look at you like a dog that has been shown a card trick - then usually one will say ' no, I just want to be famous so I can have loads of money.'

That's what the people that made Jade have done - their salutation of the mediocre destroys aspiration. I look at the media coverage and public reaction to Jade's prostitution of her death and wonder when did Britain die. The public are so anaesthatised to what is important and so caught up in this stupid celebrity culture that as a nation we have become no better than americans.

We didn't used to be like this.

Well said

Well, maybe, but it's nice to hear someone saying what he did. Not that it'll make any difference to anyone whose emotional state is prey to any old Goody-type story.

The only sensible thing to do would be to ban the sort of tabloid that runs these stories.....one of the first moves I shall make when I become PM.

Am I the only one who doesnt understand why people remember Princess Di in such high regard and with fondness, what exactly did she do. She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth to a family some would say "more" royal than the Windsor House, married a complete plank and became the future queen of england. Then allegidly banged every toff tom dick harry, will carling etc.

Oh but lets remember she walked through a mine field and hugged a few aids vicitms so she must be the nations darling. I for one was sick with all the hipe casued by her death and I went to Paris a couple of years ago and stumbeled into the underpass were she died all the crap although be it heart felt comments of graffiti there was staggering. Yet people of real importance who have contributed to society get over looked.

I refer you to my post on this thread shortly before 10am this morning.

No, you are not alone. As Parky said "Her death is as sad as the death of any young person, but it's not the passing of a martyr or a saint...". I can maybe understand impressionable young girls falling for this sort of mass hysteria but grown men? ffs

Parky is absolutely spot on. Some people have short memories, before her unfortunate illness JG was a racist and a bully, the discovery of her illness has bought her a sainthood.

I understand but that doesn't mean I agree.

As for Jade Goody, yeah, bye bye, next please.

personally speaking - and I mean this from the bottom of my heart.............



















































I could not give two fu-cks.

He never recovered from this

Jade Goody's story is the closest thing we have had to the Truman Show in real life. It is a sad indictment of society today.

true that.




anyways Parky ripped me off the 'lovely lovely person'
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=23501&p=272737&hilit=jade+goody#p272737

I hope Kerry Katona is next. Then Jordan.

...and then Jordan's husband...

And then the country Jordan.

Followed closely by all of its neighbours.

Theres an old joke that Princess Diana was only shagged twice; once by the Household Cavalry and the other by the Grenadier Guards.