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Reply to ""Jade" on Channel 4"

Baz posted:

I won’t be watching it , but I’ll be interested to read your comments on it Eugene 

No pressure, then...

 

Overall, a fairly workmanlike and sometimes quite interesting show. Some things I didn't know; one or two nuggets; and - as I suspected - quite a bit of revisionism (though mostly by omission). I'm interested in seeing how the series develops (although I'm still struggling to see how it can last 3 episodes) but I think those who weren't keen on watching won't regret missing it...

 

General observation: Press bad; C4/Endemol only observers. 

Consistently bland comments from anyone involved in the show production; interesting but often guarded comments from Jade's agent John Noel; refreshingly honest comments from the press and Jackiey (though It'll be interesting to see if she remains so when we get to CBB5...)

 

Selective observations:

BB3:

Lots of omissions. A very bland run through of the audition process: no interview with Kate Lawler and no reference to the group audition where she met Jade (and which Jade was voted out from...). No mention - not even a still photo - of Alison Hammond, which is interesting as she also went in very loud and brash like Jade, but burnt out very quickly. 

 

PJ, who looks like he hasn't aged a day, claimed that he and Jade only kissed  - which was quickly shot down by a C4 bod who revealed that C4 management were forced to invoke their "Penetration Protocols".

 

For my money, Alex Sibley came out the best of all the interviewees: a true gentleman. In retrospect, Jade's waltz with him at the final night party comes across as probably her only truly sweet moment of the series.

 

Revisionism:

Key line from Davina: "She came fourth, but she was the winner." 

Anyone who wasn't aware of what actually happened in the show would never have guessed that Jade was very lucky to survive her only "normal" eviction night (she'd have definitely gone if Adele hadn't been up too). or that she finished last in  the final "Vote to Win".

 

Graham Norton's change in opinion of Jade was shown, but without any interview or context. No reference as far as I could see of BBLB at all, so no reference to them effectively letting Avid Merrion campaign for Jade, nor to the unprecedented coverage they gave to Jackiey.

 

The overriding line that Jade was loved by other working-class viewers while being looked down-upon by snooty media-types felt pat and unconvincing, although the observation that she displayed a canny business sense after the show rang true (although how much John Noel's contributed to developing that felt debateable).

 

The Press:

Absolutely no acknowledgement that Endemol were passing stories to the press during BB3 (an open secret at the time), thus giving the false impression that the press - and by extension, the public - gradually warmed to Jade on their own.

In contrast, several gentlemen of the press were only too eager to play the "bad guys"...

 

Kevin O'Sullivan of the Mirror was the most brazen: completely unapologetic about coining the "pig" moniker WRT Jade, and quite proud of how he performed a "reverse ferret" at the end of the series (a 180-degree reversal; from opposing someone to supporting them without acknowledging the change   ).

 

Dan Evans was almost as brazen, admitting that he'd hacked Jade's and Jeff Brazier's phones. Jeff was much calmer and diplomatic than I would have been under the circumstances, as he described how Jade was given a "new" mobile phone that had been pre-tampered with! 

 

For me though, the most unexpected nugget was photographer Danny Hayward. He was quite open about how he and Jade carefully set up "candid" photos, which were then sold to the press as paparazzi shots. In a pre-YouTube and Facebook world, their virtual creation of the candid photo shoot was probably a defining contribution to the Heat/OK magazine scene...

Eugene's Lair
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