Jade Goody: Her TV Legacy

The life of Jade Goody is either a minor footnote in our history, or a major part of 21st century British culture – it depends on who you talk to. Hers was a fame built largely upon the fact she consistently polarised popular opinion; provoking laughter, disgust, loathing and affection in equal measure.  In the time we got to know the former dental nurse from South London she both amused and outraged us. 

 

When she first stepped through the front door of the Big Brother house, I could barely understand a word she said. She was unlike any Reality TV star that had gone before, and perhaps unlike anyone we'd ever seen on telly before. Strange to think that had housemate Lynne Moncreiff been a little less obnoxious, then it would have been Jade Goody evicted at the end of the week one of Big Brother 3. Voted out by her housemates would we have ever heard of her again? Fate carving out a path for Jade in such a capricious and precarious fashion seems to be symbolic of how her life unfurled after becoming television's most famous Reality TV contestant. 

 

Having been at first pilloried and then praised in the popular press while still in the house, on the outside Jade retained her place in the collective consciousness for reasons that ran the spectrum from turns as an endearing goofy village idiot figure on various reality shows to the media blitzkrieg of total vilification that resulted from a catastrophic appearance on 2007's Celebrity Big Brother.

 

Jade and the public

 

For many, these inconsistent and even contradictory traits in her personality make Jade a difficult person to unreservedly eulogise.  She seemed to simultaneously inhabit so many roles, coming to be perceived by many as the epitome of some kind of unpalatable underclass, and praised by others as a resilient young woman who rolled with the - at times - unbearable punches of a career in the media spotlight.

 

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Over time, I got used to her rapid delivery, such when she did enter that house once again in 2007; I had no problem keeping up with her frantic, seemingly uncensored chatter. This was the thing about Jade – she never really changed very much in all the time she was on our screens – it was us, and our reactions to her, that seemed forever in flux.

 

Perhaps this is the key to understanding the public's complex relationship to Jade. She was always herself, carrying on unchanged with her life under the lens, while the media and public opinion seemed to endlessly rotate around her, travelling that full circle from holding her to account as the avatar of everything that's wrong with 'broken Britain' to praising the nation's loveable court jester, and finally elevating her to a plucky, almost Diana-esque Queen of Hearts for the white van man. 

 

Jade's uniqueness

 

Outside of the obvious tragedy of anyone dying so young, and any child being left without a parent, one of the things that seems saddest about Jade's story is that, as in life, after her death she will be judged by those who didn't know her and her story will be appropriated to support the agenda of the journalists and media commentators who wish to make a point about the potential death of reality TV as we know it, or illustrate the pitfalls of stardom. 

 

Jade Goody lost and gained everything during her short life; she made mistakes - terrible shameful mistakes - but also gave people laughter, hope and an endless number of reasons to gather round that water cooler and say, 'Have you heard?' and 'Did you see?' Hopefully in time she won't just be remembered as a television curiosity or a neat bookend to the rise and (supposed) fall of Big Brother and its ilk. Hopefully, the media will let her go, and give her back to her family - those who really knew her and came to properly understand her.

 

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What are your memories of Jade? Leave tribute messages here