Big Brother: The Final or Finale? Right Result is Little Comfort for Channel 4

Only one result could have begun to repair the damage to the reputation of British television and society caused by the 2007 series of Celebrity Big Brother. And last night, at 9.20pm, Channel 4 got it.

The Indian actor Shilpa Shetty, whose culture, speech and birthplace had been mocked by other contestants, was declared winner of the gameshow with 63% of the final vote.

A viewer who had been in a monastery or up a mountain for the last month might have been persuaded of the advanced racial harmony in Britain as Shetty hugged the runner-up, singer Jermaine Jackson, an African-American convert to Islam. What a mature country it must be in which a Hindu and a Muslim from other countries prove the two most popular contestants on reality TV.

But to those who had followed the whole contest, this final image was merely a gaudy but insufficient bandage on gaping wounds to Channel 4 and its most profitable format.

Last night's scenes concluded a bizarre month in which two of the eliminated contestants - Jade Goody, former winner of the non-celebrity version of Big Brother, and her mother Jackiey - were reportedly interviewed by police investigating the possibility that Shetty's treatment on TV broke anti-racism laws. That investigation continues.

As a result of the row, a government minister, Peter Hain, unexpectedly found himself commenting on television more often than Nancy Banks-Smith. But, while C4 achieved the only tolerable outcome, controversy simmered to the end, when the sound on the live transmission cut out at the moment that some members of the live public audience seemed to be booing the victorious actor.

"Sorry for the loss of sound," apologised a caption. But the glitch was a lucky accident for a station on its best racial behaviour.

"I don't understand how people can boo our final two contestants," a visibly concerned Davina McCall said to the invited spectators. The sound was only restored when fireworks were ignited to cover Shetty's ceremonial exit, but hisses of dissent could still be heard beneath the bangs.

The winner seemed determined to think the best of her experiences. During the incarceration in the house, she had said: "If this is today's UK - it's scary!" after one of the spats with Goody which C 4 had officially dismissed as a "culture clash." But, in her post-coronation interview with McCall, she said: "Jade did not mean to be racist. I really don't want to leave England getting anyone into trouble. I just want to thank the whole of Great Britain for giving me the opportunity to make my country proud."

This remarkably graceful speech raises three possibilities. Shetty is such a good actor that they should give her the 2007 Oscar now, Helen Mirren or no Helen Mirren, or she was saying what she really believes. Or she was cannily responding to racists in the manner calculated to make them most uneasy: showing an intelligence and graciousness they will never acquire.

Earlier in the live final, the exterior mikes had also mysteriously failed at the moment when Danielle Lloyd, 23, a former Miss Britain, left the house in joint fifth place to what seems likely to have been a brutal public reception. It is Lloyd who has probably lost most from this contest.

She entered the house as a model and footballer's WAG, attached to Teddy Sheringham. But after her participation in the gang ranged against Shetty - including the lethally ambiguous suggestion that the Indian should "go home" - newspapers have suggested that her professional and personal engagements are in jeopardy.

But Lloyd showed some survival instinct by telling McCall: "I've learned not to be such a bitch." So careful stage-management just about saved the night.

But BB's future is more uncertain. A show which once started celebrity careers has now been seen to threaten them.

And this reduces the supply of those stupid enough to take part, a reservoir which, in fact, was already.

The show, however, is the network's golden goose. So, though the bird is now rancid and tasteless, the assumption must be that they will serve it up again.