Am I the only one who is absolutely baffled that he was even a thing? He was like the most obnoxious attention whore at a party that everyone else moves away from, aghast. Even separating his heinous crimes, just as a personality, why wasn’t he Will Smithed every time he showed his face? I can’t think of an American parallel.
Thanks for confirming my suspicions. Sorry you had to endure it!
I doubt he would have been at all well-received if he’d come to the US, where other eccentric Brits like Keith Moon were successful but not spectacularly so. Arthur Treacher and Sebastian Cabot are what we want in our imports.
But is @lissener saying the Netflix show was bad or just that Jimmy Savile was a horrible human being?
I’m curious if the series is any good. I’ll gladly watch a show about a horrible person, if it’s well done. In the hands of good writers/producers/directors, villains and idiots make for great subjects for entertainment/enlightenment.
At least the UK didn’t elect their obnoxious attention whore leader of their country.
Britain had a love affair with loonies in the Sixties. We had our share of obnoxious weirdo attention whores on US TV (still do) but they swim in a much bigger pond than a BBC presenter does. People watched Top of the Pops to see The Rolling Stones or Dusty Springfield, not Jimmy Savile. But the way the BBC works, if you have one decently rated show, you get a chance to do another, and another, and another. He finally lucked into a spectacularly successful show answering kids’ letters like St. Nick and compounded that saintly image with highly publicized charity work.
Imagine Jerry Lewis, also born in 1926, also a major charity fundraiser and a raging asshole but gravitating to the younger generation instead of the older, with sexual predilections to match.
I was trying to think of who might be Savile’s US equivalent in terms of generational popularity…maybe Dick Clark? He introduced bands, was popular with teens, hosted game shows and New Year’s Eve.
Any other suggestions?
Also, does anyone know why the documentary filmmakers chose to blur some faces and not others? It seemed really random, with some faces blurred during crowd shots and even in some newsreel footage. Maybe it was determined they were actually Savile victims?
Jerry Lewis is a good parallel. Especially if he hadn’t tanked his opportunity to become late night talk show king in 1963. Johnny Carson was the benefactor.
They didn’t? 
When I was watching the doc I presumed the level of scandal in the UK was at the level of what it would be in the US if it was found out Mr. Rogers had committed similar crimes.
Yeah…well, we did it first - USA , USA…
He was always seen as a trifle odd, this man who continued to dress like a teenager even through middle age into old age, but at the time he was seen as harmless enough and when he died the tributes were fulsome and the funeral very public.
I considered Jerry Lewis because of his charity work, but he was also an actor and gained fame because of his talent. Savile became famous because of his proximity to music stars and then royalty.
He kinda reminded me of Richard Simmons but with a scandal. He did a lot of good works and seemed to be a zany guest on the interview shows where he appeared. And the kids show was genius.
Dick Clark would only be a partial comparison since he wasn’t as identified with charity work as Savile was. Clark also had a more business-like demeanor than Savile who was always deceptively chummy.
What about Bill Cosby?
But again, Cosby had talent as an actor and comedian which was why he became famous. Unless I missed it, Savile never really did anything notable other than be near famous people.
But Cosby is definitely a good comparison to Savile in terms of how beloved they were by the public, and how shocking it is that they were allowed to get away with what they did for so long.
I’m about 20 minutes into the second episode. What a terribly conniving man. He was smart.
He made everyone love him so much, that it was almost easy for him to set up his life so that a lot of people would never believe him capable of such despicable behavior.
When I listened to the first woman as she described the abuse she suffered under his hands, I almost choked on the terrible rage I felt. I know exactly how that little girl felt.
I’m going to try to finish it tonight.
Savile became famous by being one of the group of Disc Jockeys that joined the BBC when it finally conceded to allow ‘pop’ music to be played on the radio after years of trying to suppress radio stations beamed into the UK from radio ships anchored just outside UK territory.
DJs were ‘personality’ radio presenters who became very famous, partly because they were obliged to talk a lot. The record companies had negotiated a restricted amount of ‘needle time’ when music was actually broadcast. They did not want anyone recording. The DJs would be encouraged to talk over the beginning and end of the record. They cultivated manic styles, full of gimmicks, fast paced wise cracks and inane jingles and sound effects. They were down with the kids and the audiences were huge. Many made the transition to TV and the only popular music show: Top of the Pops. Programming for UK radio and TV was for many years dominated by the state in the form of the BBC. Pop music was rationed.
This made the DJs household names and some transitioned to become TV show presenters, taking along their carefully cultivated ‘personality’ to game shows and other light entertainment, especially those aimed at youthful audiences.
Savile had the zaniest image. A clown-like childrens entertainer and was hugely popular. He was fond of stunts to raise money for well meaning charities. Sick children, the disabled, specialist hospitals. His show ‘Jim will fix it’ was very popular. This was national television and the audiences were in the millions. This gave him a lot of influence. He was indulged by the politicians and the heads of many institutions.
However, his popularity hid a dark secret. His talent was not only in light entertainment and self promotion, but he also knew how to influence and manipulate people in power to cover his own misdeeds. He cultivated a network of supporters within the establishment in the UK, including many police officers and figures of authority in hospitals.
Pop music shows attract kids and he had the tickets. They would bus in girls, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds living in social care homes. Problem children, from broken homes, well known to social services and the police. Kids who were unlikely to be believed. Later he targeted hospital patients and junior nurses. Those with no power or support and he worked out that institutions would do anything to preserve their reputation and avoid antagonising a nationally famous personality who was lauded very widely for his kindness and caring campaigns for the disadvantaged.
His popularity never wained and when he passed away the BBC was going to TV program commemorating his life and achievements.
This was too much for the people who knew what had been going on. With him dead and buried he could no longer blackmail anyone and the stories started to come out.
Savile was part of a wider problem in society. Institutions have been covering up exploitation of the young, old, weak and vulnerable for many decades. Savile was in the entertainment business. But the similar scandals have been exposed in the religious institutions and churches, private schools, sporting academies, hospitals, care homes. Harvey Wienstein’s activities in Hollywood and the Me Too scandal.
There is a common thread that run through it all. Institutions can become influenced by individuals and networks of abusers who take advantage of the power structure to exploit the vulnerable. They manipulate the processes that the institution should have in place for safeguarding and they leverage the tendency of all institutions put their own interests first.
This is institutional weakness. While this is easy to condemn, institutions have a vital role in society. They must be made to work without being taken over by criminals who use them to exploit the weak.
Savile was a pervert and a paedophile. There are no doubt many more like him hiding in plain sight operating within respected institutions. He was unusual in that he had a flamboyant style, but that is common in the entertainment business. His persona was what worked on TV at the time.
The sad thing is that plenty of people in the business knew what was going on but felt powerless to challenge him.
I have heard that in the UK some newspapers have a ‘black book’ of stories about famous people that they cannot reveal. They are too powerful. Power derived from the information they, in turn, have on others. Savile had many friends in various police forces and I am sure he used those connections to warn off any of his victims. His activities were also common knowledge at the BBC and in the hospitals he worked at. There is always talk. Whistleblowers run a significant risk.
I will watch the Netflix series with interest, I am curious to see what sort of job they have made of this scandal.
How many episodes are in this series?
Only two episodes.