The Spectator

Nineteen Eighty-Four? Yes, please

The Spectator on the life and death of reality TV star Jade Goody

issue 28 March 2009

Jade Goody was propelled to a very strange form of modern stardom by the reality TV show Big Brother, and even learned of the cancer that finally claimed her life last weekend on the Indian version of that programme. The title of the show was Orwellian. But what the author of Nineteen Eighty-Four could never have predicted is that the citizens would subject themselves to the scrutiny of the cameras voluntarily.

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