Storyville: Deborah James—Bowelbabe In Her Own Words, BBC 2, BBC iPlayer.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001l5q0/deborah-james-bowelbabe-in-her-own-words

Deborah James, mother of two children, died recently from bowel cancer. Hence the title Bowelbabe. The second part of the conjunction Babe was how she promoted her charity work, with a tie-in with The Sun. She helped fundraise over £11 million for her work. She was made a Dame before she died, the Princess Di of bowel cancer. This documentary focuses on the last five years of her life, but also offers footage from when she was a child.

The image of a roller-coaster was used for transitions, but it wasn’t needed. Deborah James was relentless and evangelical in promotion of herself and her disease. A rallying cry for life and more time with her kids, while knowing her body clock was ticking faster and faster. She is the heart of the story with relentless costume changes of a diva.

Our NHS comes out well. James claimed that her mum or nan used to collect token from The Sun to get a caravan holiday for a week.  Good story. I saw no evidence of this. In glam and glitz hers is an upper-middle class family. She was a Deputy Head on the fast-track, despite stating she was dyslexic, and spent little time with her kids. James, after being diagnosed, worked as journalist for The Sun. Her boss Rupert Murdoch doesn’t believe in our NHS or global warming, or the truth, even when it does cost him over $1 billion, but that’s another story. Babes are there to be looked at. Perhaps shed a crocodile tear or two over. Not taken seriously. Sham reality.  

I felt momentarily sad when my neighbour’s pal Val died suddenly leaving three kids, or when my stepson’s sister-in-law Lorraine died, leaving two kids aged eight and five. Tragic. It’s the kids I feel sorry for. The destroyed families I feel sorry for. I didn’t know Deborah James. In the same way Captain Tom’s fame was based on his great age, her disease helped make her famous, and even more glamourous. It’s like one of Grimm’s fairy tales, with an unhappy ending. Celebrity tears...