[Matt]

Sunday 22 March 2009

A tribute to Jade Goody from Phil Edgar Jones, Executive Producer of Big Brother 3, Celebrity Big Brother 5, and Creative Director of Brighter Pictures who make Big Brother.

“It was always impossible to be neutral about Jade Goody. Even when she first came to an audition for Big Brother she divided the team working on the show - some thought she was bold and brash and charming and funny; others thought she was simply too annoying to be on TV. What was certain from the outset, though, is that as soon as you saw her you wanted to talk about Jade Goody.

I was the person who made the phone call, a week before we went on air, to tell Jade she had been selected as a housemate. She screamed and dropped the phone. After a minute or so she managed to collect herself enough to have a proper conversation. I told her not to tell anyone. She said she wouldn't, then, I'm pretty sure (because she told me), she put the phone down and told practically everyone she could find.

It was this mixture of impulsiveness, childishness (she was 21 at the time) and naivety - along with a healthy smattering of bad temper and a massive dose of pure comedy - that enthralled and appalled Big Brother audiences all through the summer of Big Brother 3. The chattering classes couldn't stand her - no one like Jade had ever been given so much unfettered airtime on British TV and they didn't know what to make of her. She was regarded as ‘stupid’, ‘dreadful’ and somehow 'untamed'. At the same time, millions more connected with her on a far more fundamental level. She hadn't grown up with privilege - far from it. She'd had a tough upbringing with an absent dad and a mother who she ended up looking after; but through Big Brother she was making something of herself.

Viewers and newspapers had a complicated relationship with her through that series. She was loved one minute, hated the next, then loved again. The point is, Jade wasn't just all bad or all good, she was both. She was very, very real.

Big Brother 3 turned Jade into the first true star of ‘reality TV’. We followed her with our cameras in the months immediately after her release from the Elstree compound and we'd never seen a reaction like it. Jade was mobbed everywhere she went and inundated with offers. But what we really noticed was how she touched a nerve with people. She was someone just like anyone else, with no huge life-chances and no particular talent - but she'd become someone very, very special. And this is where shrewd Jade the bona fide celebrity kicked in. With good management and her own street smarts she proceeded to capitalise on herself as a brand - the autobiography, the perfume, the access-all-areas docusoaps, the personal appearances, the OK Magazine spreads - all part of a very modern fairy tale. Her honesty and 'realness' made her a very loud, very bright comet streaking brightly across the bland, over-PR'd celebrity firmament.

I kept in touch with Jade throughout all of this and she was always touchingly grateful for the chances Big Brother had given her. It was those feelings of gratitude and the chance to give her family some of what she'd had that led her back into the BB House for the now notorious Celebrity Big Brother. I don't need to remind you how that all turned out. I remember going to see her in a safe hotel after she'd left the house; she was sobbing uncontrollably and was really scared of the sheer weight of news coverage and public opinion against her. She was convinced in that moment that she had lost everything she'd built up over the previous five years - she kept talking about losing her house and not having money for the boys. And she kept apologising for 'damaging the programme'. I couldn’t have cared less about that. I didn't think Jade deserved a fraction of the abuse she was getting but I couldn’t console her.

Still, after a brief period in the doldrums, she bounced back. Her life and story was still fascinating to millions. Having kicked the crap out of her, the tabloids set about redeeming her again and the cycle of love/hate began anew. Over time Jade was able to build it all up again. And good on her.

And so it was till the end - she lived through the pages of the newspapers and magazines and made everything she could from her all too brief celebrity career. My abiding memory of Jade will be her courage - the courage to be who she was without compromise or shame and, in the last few weeks, the bravery to share her dreadful pain and illness with the world, sharing it all to the last to make money and secure a future for her children. And, whatever you may think of her, she was a young woman leaving two boys behind - and I can't imagine how she could have borne that emotional pain.

When she sent me a copy of her autobiography she wrote a message inside that said 'Thanks for the chance of a lifetime, you will never be forgotten'. Well, I shall never forget Jade. None of us will. She made my life a damn sight more interesting and entertaining and whenever I was with her she always made me laugh. I really, really miss her."

In lieu of cards or flowers, Jade requested a donation to her chosen charities. If you wish to make a donation to Royal Marsden Hospital or Marie Curie Cancer Care, please click on the links below.

Royal Marsden Hospital

Marie Curie Cancer Care

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