Varinder Singh’s Blog

Note: this is the essay which got me featured in the local paper back in 2007. I am aware of a few grammatical mistakes. These mistakes were all ammended before submitted my essay.

The show begins.

Last month we, the public were exposed to a show called ‘Big Brother’. The show’s objective is to keep a group of celebrities in a house for three weeks. The celebrities are expelled from the regular society in which we live. The outside world cannot communicate with them and they are subjected to odd task’s to help them pass time.

Originally, this show attracted many viewers as odd as it may seem. It was the first prime example of ‘reality TV’ here in the UK. Over the past few years the show drastically lost ratings. The public had recovered from their ’short period of reality tv sickness’. People realised, watching average people live in a house and fulfil there everyday duties was not better than getting off the couch and ‘getting a life’.

Something had to be done.

Channel 4 decided to bring into the show Shilpa Shetty, a famous Indian actress who over the past few year’s has become less popular than when she first started out in the Bollywood film industry.

Enter Jade Goody.

Jade Goody, a former dental nurse first appeared on Big Brother in 2002. Jade was brought up on a rundown part of Bermondsey by her mother Jackiey, 44. Her father Andrew, 39, left her mother when Jade was two and is currently serving a four-year sentence for robbery in Wandsworth Prison.

From the moment Goody entered the Big Brother house she became noticed - both by housemates and viewers at home.

On her first night she ended up getting drunk and asking what asparagus was. Questions such as, “Rio de Janeiro, ain’t that a person?” and “Is East Angular abroad?” generated a mass of publicity.

She became a figure of ridicule in the media, depicted as a pig (or Miss.Piggy) by one tabloid newspaper and denounced for being two-faced and ignorant.

Yet, despite all the negative press, Goody’s fortunes turned around and she finished fourth in the competition.

The celebrity frenzy which surrounded previous Big Brother contestants usually dwindles fast, but Goody proved an exception. She became a newspaper and magazine regular, revealing more details about her upbringing and how she managed to lose weight after emerging from the Big Brother house.

She began dating Jeff Brazier, best known at the time for appearing in the Channel 4 reality show Shipwrecked. The pair were rarely out of the papers and their stormy relationship became notorious.

Goody’s personal life may not have run smoothly, but her career went from strength to strength.

It is thought she has amassed a fortune from releasing several successful keep-fit DVDs, opening up her own beauty salon in Hertford and releasing her autobiography.

She went on to launch her own fragrance just before Christmas 2006, which rapidly became a best-seller.

Goody’s small-screen career fame continued, with appearances on several reality shows including Celebrity Wife Swap, Celebrity Driving School, Celebrity Weakest Link and Celebrity Stars in their Eyes.

By the time she entered Big Brother this time she was already a multi-millionaire. She had her own perfume brand (produced in India), contract’s with the body shop & numerous other financial money making deals.

We all know what happened next..

On entering Big Brother we all saw her behaviour towards Shilpa Shetty. Although in my opinion, not racist, it was indeed bullying. Surprising really, you wouldn’t expect that from someone who had worked with anti-bullying agencies.

After being evicted and the show ending, we heard report’s of Jade Goody needing protection and fearing for her life and her children’s safety. We then heard that she had numerous nervous breakdowns and it was mainly due to the constant media attacks on her.

Over night her financial gain’s were crushed and demolished. She had become public enemy number #1. Sorry, I meant number 2 (we can’t forget Osama now can we?).

“Our society does not need people like Jade Goody and her ’spineless’ co-conspirators as role models. Carphone Warehouse sets an excellent example by refusing to be associated with such behaviour.” - Hundred’s of comments just like this were posted on the web. Nobody was pleased about her behaviour.

In the following few day’s she sold her story exclusively to the news of the world. However, this financial ’success’ was only for the short run. With no money coming in, and a lot of money going out (English lessons I hope), her next claim was “I’ve lost my dignity due to big brother, the producers should have been more responsible”.

This is where my argument starts. What dignity is Jade Goody talking about? The fact that she cheated on her partner when she was in the Big Brother house the first time round by giving another celebrity a ‘blow job’ (fellatio)?

Perhaps the respect she gained from her fellow bullies on Big Brother, Daniela Lloyd & Jo O’Meara by bullying Shilpa Shetty?

Jade Goody had no dignity. Her claim to fame was exactly as Shilpa Shetty said ‘made in Big Brother’. Let’s face it, Jade Goody still has fame, except she’s now looked down on as the most stupid person alive in Great Britain.

Jade Goody was made in big brother, and now her career has died in big brother. Sound’s like Karma in action to me to be frank (from a Philosophical perspective).

A statement by Jade’s agent John Noel said: “Jade is completely distraught and is receiving medical attention for shock and depression.”

“She has publicly apologised to Shilpa and to the country on national television. Jade has had the courage to say sorry, to face her critics and to try to make amends.”

He suggested that Goody, 25, was now a victim of bullying herself by certain sections of the media. To me this say’s, the wider media are to blame, not channel 4. Channel 4 simply provided a platform in which the unfortunate events took place.

Channel 4 in my opinion was right in what they had done. They provided the story as it was. I don’t see why they should have stopped transmission simply due to some ‘alleged racism’. There’s a fine line between racism and alleged racism.

The show was conducted in a democratic an fair way. Yes, there was a little censorship and editing but so what? What was said was said.

Channel 4 did not ask Jade to bully and incite some sort racial hatred from what I can see. I can see however how they had setup Jade’s family to cause a little disturbance. This was after all meant to be ‘Celebrity Big Brother’. Since when did Jade’s mother Jackie and Jade’s boyfriend Jack become celebrities?

Jade Goody in my views has enough previous financial earnings to help herself. Channel 4 & it’s Big Brother production company Endemol in my view came to their knee’s in this series due to her. They lost there prime financer, Carphone warehouse & attracted wide spread criticism for allowing the broadcast to continue. Now, there being to subjected to an Ofcom inquiry.

Economically, Jade can keep herself alive (for now).

Physiologically, she’s a bimbo (or an illiterate moron as a friend put it).

Philosophically, what goes up, must come down. What start’s must end.

Legally, she has no case to sue anyone at all.

This concludes my essay. For those who still blame the media for being too harsh on her, perhaps they should consider the fact that Jade Goody was approached by the BNP to stand up as a potential candidate?

Thank god that after the recent display even the BNP do not wish to be associated with any form of racism (which is shocking).