Introduction - One man who fooled a nation
Name of film: Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story
Director: Rowan Deacon
Year: 2022
Official Poster
Trailer
Review
Savile committed sex crimes for over half half a century at more than 50 children’s homes, schools and hospitals around Britain. This is a thorough two part Netflix series, piecing together the Savile years that will make your blood boil. There are interviews with him. He says things like, "I should be locked up for what I do," "my case comes up next week," while the nation laughs at his carefree attitude and cigar smoking. He seemed to be dropping clues to his inner world all the time, but most only saw the great man, Sir Jimmy Savile, the man who ran Jim'll Fix it - the man who did good for charity, the man who made so many children's dreams come true.
This nearly three-hour long documentary is a investigative triumph - it is also tragedy that the final reveal on Savile's crimes came only after his death - he has since been stripped of his title and the inscription on his grave, "It was good while it lasted," removed - there are present day interviews with people who worked with or knew him, the investigative journalists who pursued the sketchy evidence behind the rumours, through the years and years of his abuse. It moves through his career, from the early days as a DJ through to his appearances on Top of the Pops which brought in mass viewing figures to the later Fix It era.
A decade after his crimes came to light, this doc shows how he groomed the nation.
‘If this guy was walking down the street, you wouldn’t want to talk to him,” says an older Selina Scott, watching footage of herself in her 80s- interviewing Jimmy Savile as he flirts with her. Young Selina masks her discomfort with a professional charm, badly misread by Savile.
You see him skirt over and ride high on celebrity chit chat again and again. He was, as the documentary says, a predator hiding in plain sight.
Savile, described by one interviewee, as a man without any emotion, worked flat out, raising millions for charity – most famously for the Stoke Mandeville Hospital. He became part of the establishment with friends and admirers everywhere - from the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, who thought she saw something similar to her, in Savile's get up and go spirit, to Prince Charles, who saw him as a man of the people. It seemed to make him untouchable.
But rumours of his true nature were always around - people suspected, but there was never any evidence. Journalist Meirion Jones, found victims willing to testify, but his Newsnight investigation into the by-then late Savile’s crimes, was not shown, pulled at the last minute, to save the BBC's reputation.
At one point, Savile is questioned under caution by police, but not charged (some of those police interviews are captured here) - in 2011, he dies, a loved and respected "national treasure". Nearly a year after his death, Savile's crimes are finally exposed by ITV, creating the scandal we now know about.
A reporter who once spent a week with him, as he ran the length of the country for charity, asked if this was a way of self punishment “No,” replies Savile, “The only time you need to punish yourself is when you’re with young ladies … because you’re such a villain and you’re not kind to them and you squeeze them and make them go ‘Ouch!’ and things like that.”
A British Horror Story does not speculate on the possible causes of Savile’s depravity - it doesn’t dwell on the strange relationship he had with his mother or his religious attitude - Savile believed in hell and often spoke of his hope that charity work would lead to a good after life.
The doc does not mention allegations of necrophilia.
It does give time and space to Sam Brown, one of his victims, whom he repeatedly abused at Stoke Mandeville hospital. This documentary is brave, bold and compelling. Through it viewer can, in hindsight, see the misery he caused throughout his decorated life, and his creepiness, more easily. Tough viewing.
Number of SUBs out of 10 - 7 out of 10
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Thanks for reading my review, always up for comments and a chat about films and TV.
Terrifying. I have been unable to watch it, but have seen Louis Theroux talk about the documentary he did of Saville, and their subsequent relationship. As a kid I saw him on TV, and thought he was weird and didn't really understand why he was on TV at all.
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