It's over a week now since the UK slipped into one of those horrible periods of moral panic and mass angst over the celebrity Big Brother Jade Goody ‘race’ row.
Those who are much more articulate than I am – and better paid because of it I would hope – have covered this issue elsewhere. I can only recommend the wonderful Grace Dent and Barbara Ellen for their perspective and also that of Anushka Asthana to get a rounded view.
What was noticeable though was just how poorly C4 came out of this. When it was obvious to all who watched that we were not witnessing some common or garden BB bullying but something that belonged in a much darker place , it was striking that the whole issue was allowed to continue by the broadcaster.
Yes the whole essence of BB is to witness first hand how people in a confined space do or don’t get on but, as when B5 nearly descended into a brawl, there are limits. These were undoubtedly breached in the Jade/Shilpa row.
Programme makers Endemeol and C4 were shown to be either opportunistically cynical in rating chasing or just rubbish. I believe the former applies to Endemol and the latter to C4 who did themselves no favours when tackled by the media on the incident.
Call me old fashioned but putting up someone in a scruffy t-shirt, despite his position, to give the corporate view was not sensible at all. It appeared, and appearances are vital at these times, that they cared just as much as the programme’s appearance as their personal appearance.
As for Endemol, and I speak as a BB fan, they deliberately provoked the row; why else was the manifestly mad Goody clan put there in the first place. Endemol’s Victorian ancestors probably promoted bear baiting.
Following Jade’s defenestration and inevitable media excommunication, what’s left for BB now? Can the same dynamics simply be allowed to develop or will conflict only be permitted when the protagonists are of the same ethnic grouping? How racist is that?
