Mansion makeover with a coat of gloss for Katie’s troubles too

THe secret of celebrity in the 21st century is to say anything you like and act as though it’s true. On tV, reality is whatever you want it to be.

‘My house!’ declared the glamour model formerly known as Jordan, surveying her 19-room home and its ten acres of land, on Katie Price’s Mucky Mansion (C4).

‘i can just look at the house and garden,’ she said, ‘and think, “i got this. it wasn’t given to me. i worked for all of this.” i just don’t think i’ll ever leave here.’

the house is largely derelict after thieves systematically stripped it of all content and vandalised the empty shell while she was away.

At no point in this hour, the first of a three-part series about her Diy renovations, was a word breathed about any repossession order hanging over the £1.35million property in West sussex.

last november, she was ordered to repay £500,000 to creditors including a mortgage company.

With a further hearing due next month, the star, who was made bankrupt in 2019 with debts totalling £3.2 million, could lose her home within weeks.

there was no mention either of her arrest last september for driving under the influence of drugs and drink, when she crashed her bMW X5 at 6am after a night of partying. she was already disqualified from driving at the time. Footage for this show, filmed before that self-inflicted disaster, saw her drying out at an addiction clinic. she narrowly escaped a prison sentence.

but in the past week, she has been arrested again, this time for allegedly sending abusive text messages to the girlfriend of her ex-husband, Kieran Hayler.

none of this was addressed or even hinted at. there was no reference in the voiceover, no caption cards to set the record straight.

i’ve always admired Katie Price for shining a spotlight on the serious disabilities suffered by her oldest son Harvey, who is autistic.

she dares the world to think any less of him, and that takes courage.

but she seems completely unable to face the financial chaos she has caused and its implications for her children. Much of this episode focused on her efforts to redecorate a bedroom for her eight-year-old son, Jett.

We were meant to snigger at how tacky it all was, with plastic grass for wallpaper and mutilated stuffed toys glued to the walls. Apart from that, viewers were given the impression that all Price’s problems were finally behind her. ‘i’ve done a reset button on myself,’ she asserted. sadly, it looks as though that big red button she pushed was not marked ‘reset’ but ‘self-destruct’.

the Repair shop’s Jay blades was pressing his own reset, as he battled illiteracy in Learning To Read At 51 (bbC1).

it’s clear that dyslexia is not his only problem. He has other demons, with a past that includes drug dealing, depression and violence.

He refers to his father as ‘the man who contributed towards my birth’. His mother, who brought him up alone and has now moved to the Caribbean, elicits little more affection: ‘Growing up with my mum, an emptiness . . . love and care is what i think i was missing.’

We saw him struggling with the most basic words, like ‘egg’ and ‘cut’, though he also said he had a reading age of 11, and was able to bluff his way through a university degree in his 30s.

this one-off show needed more emphasis on the eight million adults in britain who also have difficulty reading.

it did at least broach the topic. now that needs more open discussion.