Sir Michael Parkinson has blasted the late Jade Goody, who died on Mother's Day, for representing "all that's paltry and wretched about Britain today".
Writing in the Radio Times, the veteran broadcaster admitted that Goody had cemented her place in television history but claimed her achievements were "nothing to be proud of".
"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 smokescreen 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," he said.
He continued: "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."
