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WATCHING the Jade Goody documentary was like watching a favourite movie, one with comedy, romance and drama… but you know it doesn’t end well.
The leading lady will die at the end, leaving everyone devastated. I had a knot in my stomach and a tear in my eye all the way through.
The first episode of Jade: The Reality Star Who Changed Britain, on Channel 4 on Wednesday, focused on the making of Jade – the fun, bubbly dental nurse from Bermondsey who burst into the Big Brother house.
“The world needs to get to know me!” she said in her audition.
She made viewers smile.
She was the first proper reality star Britain has ever seen. The first person to be famous purely for being famous.
These days, rather depressingly, “influencer” and “reality star” are bona fide job titles. There were hilarious clips from Jade’s time in the BB house in 2002 when she was just 20.
She stripped naked, wondered if “East Angular” was abroad, and sobbed over a verruca. I’d forgotten how entertaining she was. But there was a dark side that I’d also forgotten. “The viewers hated her,” said one producer.
Abuse
A tearful Davina Mccall called it the start of an “enormous wave of abuse”. It made for uncomfortable viewing. This was not just a look at Jade but a tour through the beginnings of reality telly and what it could do to people.
Questions have been raised recently in the wake of suicides of two Love Island contestants and abuse on social media.
Producers of reality shows have pledged more support for its cast members.
But is it all our fault for tuning in? Watching Jade was like rubbernecking at a car crash. But the way she won over the nation’s hearts was, in Davina’s words, “nothing short of frickin’ miraculous”.
Once people learned of her upbringing, the violence, the drug addict parents, she became the nation’s sweetheart.
Her business savvy after the show, raking it in with pictures, interviews and TV appearances was actually admirable. She made something of herself.
Then there was romance as she met Shipwrecked star Jeff Brazier, who she’d go on to marry and have two sons with.
The episode left us here, with emotional home videos of a family Christmas and what felt like new beginnings.
But it wasn’t to last.
“It all went wrong,” said her mum. The second two acts of Jade’s tragic life are still to play out, covering the racism scandal and her death aged 27 from cervical cancer.
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