Parkinson criticises the hype created around Goody

London (ANI): Veteran broadcaster Sir Michael Parkinson has said that Jade Goody represented "all that is paltry and wretched about Britain today". The 74-year-old criticized the hype created around the late reality TV star, who was recently buried after losing her battle to cervical cancer on Mother's Day aged 27.

Parkinson said that the 'exaggerated' pedestal awarded to Goody, who rose from shambled back streets in Essex to fame and fortune through the Big Brother show, was uncalled for. "Jade Goody has her own place in the history of television and, while it's significant, it's nothing to be proud of," the Telegraph quoted him as writing in the Radio Times.

“Her death is as sad as the death of any young person, but it's not the passing of a martyr or a saint or, God help us, Princess Di. When we clear the media smoke screen from around her death what we're left with is a woman who came to represent all that's paltry and wretched about Britain today."

“She was brought up on a sink estate, as a child came to know both drugs and crime, was barely educated, ignorant and puerile. Then she was projected to celebrity by Big Brother and from that point on became a media chattel to be manipulated and exploited till the day she died," he added.