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Jimmy Savile: Steve Coogan on playing paedophile TV presenter in The Reckoning
BBC ^ | Oct 7 | By Steven McIntosh

Posted on 10/06/2023 11:11:16 PM PDT by RandFan

A new TV drama sees actor Steve Coogan portray one of the most notorious paedophiles and sex offenders in British criminal history: Jimmy Savile.

The TV presenter and radio DJ, who died in 2011 aged 84, enjoyed a successful career over several decades. At the time, he was known for his eccentric personality and charitable fundraising. It was only after his death that the full extent of his sexual abuse became clear.

Throughout his life, Savile had utilised his celebrity status to prey on hundreds of people, male and female, many of them minors. Rumours and allegations about his behaviour followed him for decades, but when confronted he would deny and deflect, helping him to avoid accountability and punishment.

BBC One's The Reckoning follows Savile's career - from DJ-ing in music halls in the north of England in the early 1960s to hosting hugely successful shows such as Top of the Pops and Jim'll Fix It - and examines why he never had to face consequences for his actions.

It is a complex and challenging story to tell as a TV drama. Coogan, best known for roles such as Alan Partridge and films including Philomena, admits he felt "great trepidation" about the possible pitfalls.

"I felt like there's probably a handful of people in the country who could who could play the part, and I did consider myself one of them," the actor says.

"It wasn't enjoyable, it was a professional challenge that I wanted to take on... I knew there was the potential for catastrophic failure if you get it wrong, but that's not a reason not to do it."

Savile's crimes are a source of great shame for the institutions where he worked or volunteered, including the BBC..

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: groomer; grooming; lgbtq; rachellevine
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This should be interesting I'm sure it'll be available on Netflix at some point for international audiences
1 posted on 10/06/2023 11:11:16 PM PDT by RandFan
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To: RandFan

I read a great deal on Saville when the truth came out, I doubt I could bear to watch a TV drama on this vile man. It would be very difficult to portray and I would hate to be the actor trying to do it.


2 posted on 10/06/2023 11:18:01 PM PDT by Captain Peter Blood
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To: RandFan

> BBC One’s The Reckoning follows Savile’s career

Didn’t the BBC employ him? Are they going to be honest about their own complicity?


3 posted on 10/06/2023 11:42:04 PM PDT by ArcadeQuarters (You can't remvove RINOs by voting for them!)
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To: ArcadeQuarters

***pathetic:

MORE EXCERPTS: Although it is airing on the BBC, The Reckoning has been produced by ITV Studios.
That isn’t unusual. However, in this case, it adds important and valuable distance, as the BBC is one step removed from the editorial process...

However, at a press launch earlier this week, Moore and the panel were robustly challenged by journalists who felt the drama was not critical enough of the BBC.

***Chief among their complaints was that the series does not depict the shelving of a Newsnight investigation into Savile in 2011, weeks before the BBC was due to broadcast a posthumous tribute to him.

Instead, the debacle is referenced in a post-script as the four-part series concludes...
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66987497

BBC covered up for him for years. everyone knew, even if not the full extent of his depravity.


4 posted on 10/07/2023 12:01:31 AM PDT by MAGAthon
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To: RandFan

I like Steve Coogan, I think he’ll play Jimmy Savile just as well as Evan Peters played Jeffrey Dahmer.


5 posted on 10/07/2023 12:17:16 AM PDT by Antihero101607
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To: RandFan

Biden is the Jimmy Savile here and protected by the corrupt media as Jimmy Savile was in England while he was alive.


6 posted on 10/07/2023 2:01:34 AM PDT by minnesota_bound (Need more money to buy everything now)
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To: MAGAthon

Interesting. Thanks.


7 posted on 10/07/2023 2:10:14 AM PDT by ArcadeQuarters (You can't remvove RINOs by voting for them!)
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To: minnesota_bound

Ah yes, Jimmy Saville. WEF King Charles’s close buddy. Had free reign of the palaces, according to Saville.


8 posted on 10/07/2023 2:11:02 AM PDT by Kalamata (President Trump, the ONLY candidate who is NOT OWNED by the Deep State.)
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To: Kalamata

.


9 posted on 10/07/2023 2:12:19 AM PDT by Kalamata (President Trump, the ONLY candidate who is NOT OWNED by the global oligarchs.)
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To: Kalamata; All

Johnny Lydon (Rotten) of the Sex
Pistols talked years ago about Savile’s
reputation regarding this.
Coogan played Tommy the Medic, a WWI
era Army doctor in the film Indian
in the Cupboard (boy with magic
cupboard that brings toy sized
dead people to life)


10 posted on 10/07/2023 2:49:41 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: raccoonradio; All

I read an episode of Brit kids show
the Tweenies had a puppet based on
Savile and the BBC apologized for mistakenly airing an
old episode that had it

A repeat of The Tweenies saw the popular puppet “Max” in a Jimmy Savile fancy dress outfit pretending to be DJing on Top of the Pops.

It comes a week after a report into Savile claimed he sexually abused and raped children as young as eight over a 54-year period – including an assault at the last filming of Top of the Pops in 2006.

It comes after the BBC launched a search for a new editor of Newsnight after the programme dropped a report into Savile’s decades-long campaign of abuse.

A BBC spokeswoman said she would not confirm whether viewers had complained directly to the BBC about the programme

https://www.channel4.com/news/bbc-childrens-show-features-jimmy-savile-character


11 posted on 10/07/2023 2:54:06 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: RandFan

I know a little bit about all this but I think you have to be a Brit to fully understand it. Even in an episode of “Are You Being Served” Mr Humphries mentions “Jim’ll Fix It” but I had never hear of him until a couple of years ago.


12 posted on 10/07/2023 3:19:17 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Two Words: Banana Republic)
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To: Captain Peter Blood

The thing that struck me the hardest was that among his victims were disabled kids...kids who were patients at a hospital specializing on people with spinal cord injuries.


13 posted on 10/07/2023 3:20:56 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Two Words: Banana Republic)
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To: RandFan

Never would have heard of this creep years ago if it where not for concervative media.


14 posted on 10/07/2023 3:24:32 AM PDT by Lockbar (Even when you think you finally have enough ammo, you still really don't have enough. )
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To: raccoonradio

There’s a Brit named Louis Theroux who has done a number of interesting documentaries on British TV who once did a thing on Saville...long before he was exposed. He asked Saville at one point if he was a pervert (he didn’t put it exactly that way) and he danced around the question masterfully.


15 posted on 10/07/2023 3:24:37 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Two Words: Banana Republic)
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To: Gay State Conservative

It was a hugely popular show where kids would write in and ask him to grant their dreams kind of like a “make a wish” foundation.


16 posted on 10/07/2023 3:29:51 AM PDT by RandFan
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To: Gay State Conservative

He even had a live-in apartment/accommodation at the hospital. Unbelievable.


17 posted on 10/07/2023 3:33:34 AM PDT by RandFan
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To: Antihero101607

He’s talented, no doubt. “Hamlet 2” is a guilty pleasure. I just read up on his politics...he’s a dunce.


18 posted on 10/07/2023 3:42:26 AM PDT by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: gundog

That’s kind of a shame, part of why I liked the guy outside of being an actual actor with some talent, was the fact that I don’t believe I’d ever read anything about his politics or voicing his opinions thereof.


19 posted on 10/07/2023 4:09:41 AM PDT by Antihero101607
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To: Antihero101607

Well, to his credit, I’ve never heard him interject his opinions into American politics. He parrots the “zenophobic nationalism” stuff about conservatives at home.


20 posted on 10/07/2023 4:17:41 AM PDT by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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