About Jimmy Savile

[Sephiroth]

Mainly made this thread to get some genuine UK responses, as I know we have people here who live there. With everything going on about Harvey Weinstein and others, I find myself going back to Savile’s case. I only found out about it a year or two ago, as he had virtually no presence in the US, but his story still manages to give me the utter dry heaves. But as disgusting as I think he was, I really can’t imagine what it was like for those in the UK for whom he was a television icon and virtually seen as a national treasure during his lifetime. Which just makes it all the stranger, because personallly I look at him and think “Could the man have been more obvious?” I suppose he is like Richard Simmons in that the eccentric image was just part of his brand and how he sold himself, and perhaps it actually explains why his accusers wouldn’t be believed while he was alive, “Oh Jim’s just different that way, he meant no harm” kind of thing. So what do our UK forum members have to say in this case?

[Jiren]

Every time I saw him he always gave off a sicko vibe.

Also scum BBC covered up for him

[karl100589]

Saville got away with it for a long time largely because of his front. Being from a pro-wrestling and broadcasting background, he had an excuse for his media behaviour to be eccentric and over the top, especially at a time where Radio DJ's in the UK were at their peak in popularity and nearly all of them were OTT. He also did a lot of charity work which made him somewhat immune from criticism while also spreading rumours to take doubters off the scent, he had an unhealthy fascination with the afterlife and made jokes about being feared in girls dorms. In a lot of ways it was hiding in broad daylight.

[Futureraven: Beelzebruv]

Plus his Charity work had 2 sinister purposes.

First, it brought him into contact with more children, while giving him the cover of "he's such a generous man, he couldn't be bad".

Secondly, through that, he made connections with politicians, royalty, so he had some VERY heavy hitters behind him in terms of influence.

[SmashTV]

There was speculation going on about him dating back to the mid 90s, but I'm sure that nobody imagined the scale and extent of it. The public persona was one of a slightly eccentric uncle and a man dedicated to his charity work, and it was an easy disguise to fall behind. One of the only positives from this - if you could call it a positive - is that it gave others the strength and courage to come out and speak up, and consequently a lot more celebrities and entertainers from the 70s and 80s were brought to task for their behaviour - Stuart Hall, Max Clifford, Dave Lee Travis...and, sad to say, Rolf Harris.

Personally, I was more shocked and saddened when Rolf Harris was exposed as a predator; if anyone was a national treasure and universally popular, it was him. Shame on them all.

[Bo Rida]

Nov 21, 2017 15:08:04 GMT -5 SmashTV said:

There was speculation going on about him dating back to the mid 90s, but I'm sure that nobody imagined the scale and extent of it. The public persona was one of a slightly eccentric uncle and a man dedicated to his charity work, and it was an easy disguise to fall behind. One of the only positives from this - if you could call it a positive - is that it gave others the strength and courage to come out and speak up, and consequently a lot more celebrities and entertainers from the 70s and 80s were brought to task for their behaviour - Stuart Hall, Max Clifford, Dave Lee Travis...and, sad to say, Rolf Harris.

Personally, I was more shocked and saddened when Rolf Harris was exposed as a predator; if anyone was a national treasure and universally popular, it was him. Shame on them all.

Yeah I don't think Saville's was ever held in the same high regard as somebody like Rolf Harris or non discraced celebs like Brucie or Terry Wogan.

His charity cover and longetivity meant he was more accepted/tolerated than loved.

Admittedly his prime was way before my time, he was more a relic of a bygone age that was wheeled out now and again (top of the pops presenting and marathon running).

Look up his Have I got news for you appearance, shows the way he hid in plain sight.

[Cyno]

I always got the sense that Savile was more Jerry Sandusky than Harvey Weinstein, especially in how they both used their charities as almost a front to find new victims. And they also had people in powerful positions covering up or looking the other way.

[DiBiase is Good]

Nov 21, 2017 15:03:21 GMT -5 Futureraven: Beelzebruv said:

Plus his Charity work had 2 sinister purposes.

First, it brought him into contact with more children, while giving him the cover of "he's such a generous man, he couldn't be bad".

Secondly, through that, he made connections with politicians, royalty, so he had some VERY heavy hitters behind him in terms of influence.

I think that’s one of the key points here. He had so many connected and Influential people “on his side”, it was almost impossible for anything to stick to him. A lot of people like to use this as a stick to beat the BBC with but they’re far from the only ones to blame. Don’t get me wrong, the BBC should be punished for covering up his behaviour but so should the higher legal authorities for not giving previous allegations the attention they deserved.

It’s easy to watch videos of him and say “so people were surprised when he turned out to be a diddler?”, even for someone like me who grew up thinking he was a legend. But that was his smokescreen. He hid in plain sight and made it so obvious that it was a ridiculously effective defence. There are videos of him from the mid-90s admitting that he liked to take girls back to his caravan (and it’s not like it was on an obscure show, it was on Have I Got News For You), yet it was all laughed off.

[msc]

He got around by buddying up with some very powerful people, and then using that to blackmail far less powerful people. Not just his victims, but you know those villains who can get the police to listen to them by making them think they know the head of police, or the local hoodlums to beat someone up because they believe him when he threatens to call out the boss hoodlum on them? That was Jimmy Savile in real life, and even as a broken down 80 year old man he still had that power on enough people. I'm aware that Terry Wogan, for example, was told about incidents sometime around the 80s/90s, and went directly to the police, only for them to stonewall on anything further. (Wogan did ban Savile from Children in Need in response.) When one of the most beloved (and therefore surely safe) people in the country go the cops, and they bullshit them, what hope did some homeless kids have?

He also hid it in plain sight, by playing all rumours as a joke - see the long standing ones about him sleeping with his mum when she was dead. By taking the seemingly ridiculous and playing it straight in public, he made anything else seem just one of those rumours.

In short, he was a very smart, and creepy, bully. There are also political reasons, but to go into them breach the forum rules.

I never liked him, to be honest. Just something about him.

On the other hand, I adored Rolf Harris as a kid, and that one was a real shocker, and saddening. No time for him now, obviously.

[Johnny]

A strange case, where very few people I've spoken with were that surprised when it all came out. He was like the country's weird uncle for years, and everyone just dismissed the warning signs as eccentricity.

Rolf was a way bigger gut punch for me.

[wankah]

Rolf really was the unexpected shocker. Savile was the subject of all kindsa rumors since the mid 90's or so. Though I doubt anyone back then could really predict how sick and twisted his actions were in reality, but still.

[thirteen3]

Savile was pretty much retired for the majority of my life. And I never watched any of the stuff he would pop-up on anyway. He always came off as a weirdo to me and it didn't really come off as a shock when the things he did surfaced.

I agree with the sentiments on Rolf Harris however, I was actually devastated by that. Loved Animal Hospital as a kid.

[LexExpress]

A lot of people obviously knew and turned a blind eye, which was more shocking to me than the revelations. Admittedly, he was mostly retired when I was growing up.

If you watch the doc When Louis (Theroux) Met Jimmy from circa 2000, Louis actually asks him in that, "What do you say to the allegations that you're a paedophile?" so it was evidently a well-known 'rumour' years before anything came out.

[DiBiase is Good]

Nov 21, 2017 18:01:20 GMT -5 LexExpress said:

A lot of people obviously knew and turned a blind eye, which was more shocking to me than the revelations. Admittedly, he was mostly retired when I was growing up.

If you watch the doc When Louis (Theroux) Met Jimmy from circa 2000, Louis actually asks him in that, "What do you say to the allegations that you're a paedophile?" so it was evidently a well-known 'rumour' years before anything came out.

Louis Theroux actually addresses that whole thing during his interview with Richard Herring for his Leicester Square Theatre Podcast. He knows that he kind of let Savile off the hook that night as he clearly had him reeling and almost on the point of confession.

[Hit Girl]

A total scumbag. They should dig up his corpse and kill him again.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

If you want to know about I feel about Saville, you could just ask John Lydon.

[Jiren]

It's sad that it all came out after he died, The f***er got off scott free

At least c***s like Glitter & Harris are getting punished.

["Magic" Mark Hurr]

I saw a couple of documentaries about him and also saw his name come up a few times over the years when doing those "well why does this person know this person" digging up information days many years ago.

The guy was pure and total sum.

[Wolf Hawkfield no1 NZ poster]

Nov 21, 2017 17:10:46 GMT -5 wankah said:

Rolf really was the unexpected shocker.

The pedo stuff was a shock but going by what a lot of people have said it was pretty much a open secret for nearly 50 years that he was a massive creep.

[Ryback on a Pole!]

There were rumours about Saville for years. I vaguely remember seeing "Jim will f*** it" t-shirts for sale at I think Skegness market. I remember because as a kid seeing a swear on a shirt was the height of hilarity for me.

I'm surprised the public outrage wasn't worse. When the story first broke and it was clearer higher ups in the BBC had been covering for the sick, twisted f*** I honestly thought it would be the end of the BBC. Same as the police, have any actually been charged with covering up for him? Because it's clear he had allies inside who ignored any complaints.