Ten years since Jade Goody’s death, it’s easy to forget just how vilified the one-time “most hated woman in Britain” was by the same press that propelled her to stardom. A new three-part Channel 4 documentary, Goody: The Reality Star Who Changed Britain aims in part to force us to remember. The first instalment of the documentary, which aired last night, tracked Goody’s meteoric rise, from her childhood through to life after her first stint in Big Brother.

In 2002, before we began to realise the immense damage that reality TV can have, Goody was cast in Big Brother aged just 20. She was a “real person”, a vulnerable, naive working class girl from a tough background in Bermondsey who would rope in viewers with her lack of filter. That’s what the producers thought, and it worked – almost overnight, Goody was ridiculed, not only for her perceived lack of intelligence but for her looks, too. “She totally delivered on what we thought she would, in a cold hard way. The viewers hated her,” says one producer during the documentary.

Not just the viewers: the press, too. Goody pulls up front pages that seem archaic now, with fatphobic headlines and cruel imagery. Tabloid journalists were interviewed, with one gleefully revisiting his coverage, laughing at headlines that compare Goody to a “pig”. She was vilified, the entire country over, for how she spoke and looked. Her Big Brother housemates mocked her, and footage of viewers outside the house show people chanting to “vote out the pig” and telling her to “die”. Looking back, it seems like she never stood a chance.

The hatred of Goody was symptomatic of the hatred of those like her in Britain in the early 2000s – a fear of working class people, of “chavs”, was endemic in the country. But unlike so many others, Goody eventually got the platform to tell her story. After it was revealed that Goody was the “impoverished daughter of drug addicts”, the public finally started to see her as a person. Suddenly, papers that just last week had been publishing cruel photoshopped photos of Goody saw her as a vulnerable sweetheart.

In the documentary, Goody’s mother is chillingly generous with her anecdotes. She tells horrific stories of punching her daughter for taking away her pipe, talking openly about her daughter “growing up too fast”. Shocking images show a very young Goody smoking weed, and her mother confesses that she believes Goody went into the house just to get away from her and “to get her childhood back”. It gives an insight into where Goody came from, and why she felt she had no choice but to go on reality TV. She even calls Big Brother her “golden ticket”.

Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Show all 30 1 /30 Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Davina McCall with Jade Goody after she left the Big Brother house in 2002 Rex Features Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Jade realeased her first fitness DVD, 'Dance Workout' not long after leaving the show in 2002 Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Goody soon formed a relationship with Jeff Brazier, a television presenter and fellow reality TV star. Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Jade at the Barnado's sponsored Big Toddle event in late 2003. Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Jade at the premiere of Garfield: The Movie in 2003. With her is son Bobby Jack Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures In 2004, Jade was one of the stars of Back to Reality, a television show which sends reality TV stars back into the medium they found fame Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures By the 2004 TV Quick Awards, Jade was pregnant with her second child by Brazier. The baby, a boy named Freddie, was born later that year Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures In late 2005, Jade appeared in the show's Christmas panto Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures By 2005 Jade had split with Brazier, although the pair retained a close relationship Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Jade was one of the faces of Living TV's Autumn/Winter relaunch in 2006 Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Jade at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures By the end of 2006 Jade was rumoured to have made £1million from sales of her first autobiography. Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Jade Goody at the 2006 Capital Radio Aid fundraiser. Proceeds from the event went to victims of the previous year's Asian tsunami Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Jade was heavily criticised for her involvement in the 2006 London Marathon. Before the event she told chef Gordon Ramsey that she had prepared by “eating curry, Chinese and drinking.”. Jade collapsed after 21 miles and was taken to the Royal London Hospital for treatment. She later explained Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Jade at the launch of her perfume 'Shh...' in 2006. The perfume became Superdrug's third best selling fragrance Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures In late 2006 Jade found love again, this time with Jack Tweed Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures In 2006 Jade Goody launched her short-lived Just Jade TV show Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Jade with her children at the premiere of Garfield II in 2006 Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures In 2007, Jade appeared in Celebrity Big Brother 5 alongside her family. Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures While on the show a race row erupted after several contestants were accused of picking on Shilpa Shetty. While others did say racist things about Shilpa, Jade hadn’t. However, she soon became the global face of the incident and attracted widespread criticism for her behaviour Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Jade immediately apologised for her involvement in the Shilpa Shetty race row saying she was "disgusted with [her]self". The apology had little effect on public opinion Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Her mother Jackiey Budden (centre) also appeared on the show Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Having spent several months out of the media limelight and after having a miscarriage, Jade made her public comeback at the Celebrity Soccer Six event Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Jade Goody flew to New Delhi to apologise to the people of India directly for her involvement in the Shilpa Shetty row Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty and Jade Goody pose for a picture in Mumbai. In late 2008 Jade appeared in the television show Big Boss, the Indian version of Big Brother. Jade had mysteriously collapsed just before flying to India. She was told live on the show that she had cervical cancer Reuters Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Jade released her second autobiography 'Catch a Falling Star' soon after being diagnosed with cancer Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Jade Goody arrives at her home in Waltham Abbey GETTY IMAGES Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Jade Goody and Jack Tweed make an appearance for the press outside her home in Waltham Abbey Getty Jade Goody: reality TV star career in pictures Crowds gather to see the funeral procession of British television celebrity Jade Goody following her funeral at Saint-John The Baptist Church in Buckhurt Hill, Essex AFP/Getty

And despite not winning, Goody was suddenly inundated with press, money, TV shows. She was famous for being famous in a time that slightly preceded Paris Hilton and the Kardashians. She went from poverty to book launches overnight, all through the sheer power of her personality. She worked it well; selling her own “candid” images, taking every opportunity, chasing everything she could. But that, the documentary reveals, ruined her too: she worked constantly, and, as ex-husband Jeff Brazier tells it, “never taking her foot off the pedal” lest the press move on to someone new. Therein lies the working class curse: it’s impossible to ever sit back and enjoy your success. Somebody will always be there to take it away from you.

Goody exposes the problem with reality TV that we wilfully ignored in the early 2000s, and it took genuine tragedy to make us understand. Reality TV offers people with nothing a free opportunity to win money or fame or, in the case of The Jeremy Kyle Show, answers. They, as Goody did, see it as their rise out of poverty. But they aren’t prepared for the vilification that being put on TV in front of the entire country can bring. Nobody ever really is. They’re encouraged to be their “authentic selves” so viewers can tear them apart, told that they can have everything – but they aren’t told what that new fame will take away. With no blueprint, Goody had no idea what she was getting into, but nothing could be worse than the life she lived before.

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When you grow up in impoverished or abusive circumstances, you don’t have time to become a whole person. You don’t get to learn from your mistakes or be taught what isn’t the right thing to say. Every day is survival: there really isn’t that much time for nuance, and your development is often delayed. Goody was forced to grow up, live on TV, after a mostly insular existence living with parents who didn’t raise her. That delay made people think Goody was “thick”, made them talk about her as if she wasn’t in the room. But the documentary shows that she was self aware: “People don’t like the real me, and that hurts” she says in one clip. Goody exposes that grotesque reality, and will hopefully force people who were complicit in her takedown to reconsider what they did. Goody’s infamy made her, sure – it took her away from her mother’s house. But at what cost?