Within days of her funeral, Michael Parkinson has attacked Jade Goody on the pages of Radio Times.

He criticised the dead star for representing the “paltry and wretched” side of British life. Her death, he told the magazine, was “not the passing of a martyr or a saint or, God help us, Princess Di.”

Sir Michael had even less kind words to say about the industry which made Goody famous. Sky News reports him saying: “I have been a journalist for 60 years and I am appalled by what’s happened to my profession. She was exploited mercilessly by the media.”