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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think that Saville was NEVER a "Much loved family favourite"???

684 replies

MrsWinnibago · 26/06/2014 13:33

Sorry to start a thread about this sick, awful animal but they just said on Radio 4 that he was a much loved family favourite.

I CLEARLY remember watching him on Jim'l Fix It and thinking "Oh he's HORRIBLE!"

I hated him...he was frightening and I could see that some children were very scared of him on that show.

Did ANYONE actually enjoy his "performances" and appearances?? I don't think so.

I think the establishment kept him where he was...on TV and in positions of power because he knew too much about THEIR activities.

And it's funny how it all came out once he was dead and couldn't name anyone else.

I challenge anyone to think back and remember how much they "loved" him at the time before his activities were known.

OP posts:
Vevvie · 26/06/2014 18:00

My grandma liked him and would watch him on TV and sing his talents, he repulsed me as a child.

emotionsecho · 26/06/2014 18:02

I always thought he was odd and peculiar, and did wonder if he was hiding homosexuality from his mum, but a good friend of mine saw him on the TV in Jim'll Fix It and was physically repulsed by his interaction with the children and how right she was proved to be.

My parents were pretty strict and wouldn't let me within a million miles of Jim'll Fix It or Top of the Pops, they obviously had an intuition about him too.

Hakluyt · 26/06/2014 18:03

"It seems a shame to polarise a discussion about such horrific crimes into those who thought he was awful = deniers of abuse perpetrated by trusted adults.

It is perfectly possible to know about or have experience of paedophilia by trusted friends and family members, AND have thought JS was an odious cunt. "

It's not one or the other, no. But my point stands. Anything which confirms paedophiles as "other" is seized on with huge relief. Because that's how we want it to be.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 26/06/2014 18:09

Is it possible that, in some part, it was his creepy/odd persona actually helped protect him? In that some might have thought, 'why would you look so dodgy, if you were actually dodgy? Wouldn't you try to blend in and stay low profile instead?' Just a thought that has occurred to me.

Discofunction · 26/06/2014 18:09

I always found him creepy!!

CarpetBagger · 26/06/2014 18:12

I think he was a person people thought they sort of had to like, as he was associated with so much charity work, and childrens shows and fun stuff.

he was a total odd ball and naff....he was out there on his own with his own strange brand...

i can imagine it was frowned on not to like him because he was associated with so much chairty work

MyrtleDove · 26/06/2014 18:13

SDTG I think that's a good point, and I think it was true for me - I thought he was odd, and I think by the time of the Louis Theroux doc we knew more about paedophiles and that usually they're very normal-looking people. Certainly for me growing up there was no idea that looking dodgy = being dodgy, it was more if they told you to keep things from parents. There was also much less automatic respect for authority figures by then - considering this thread, I think that is a good thing.

sillystring · 26/06/2014 18:14

He used the creepy persona to hide in plain sight. There were loads of rumours about him being a necrophiliac in the 1970s and 80s because of him "helping out" at Stoke Mandeville and spending too much time in the morgue. He probably encouraged those rumours to prevent the reality of his real preferences getting out.

I only ever knew one guy who liked him. He ran a shop and had photos of Savile up on the wall, he was mental for him. Poor guy was devastated when the truth came out and burnt all the photos in a ceremonial pyre.

AllMimsyWereTheBorogoves · 26/06/2014 18:16

I always thought he was repellent but I had no idea what he was actually up to. I was living in Leeds in the 70s and I think I had a lucky escape the day I spent several hours in A&E with a broken arm, aged 10. There were plenty of other kids of a similar age and in just as much pain who he targeted.

CarpetBagger · 26/06/2014 18:17
  • He probably encouraged those rumours to prevent the reality of his real preferences getting out

Oh no I doubt it, in todays mail about his oral sex on dead bodies...and mucking about in the morgue.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2670444/Jimmy-Savile-abused-corpses-boasted-jewellery-glass-eyes-NHS-report-reveals-shocking-new-details-paedophiles-crimes.html

I dont think he used his creepy persona I think he just was weird...and kept getting away with things...he had a sort of cheeky chappy chirpy persona and I think generally people with this sort of persona do get away with lots in life.

andsmile · 26/06/2014 18:17

I agree OP I never watche Jim n fix it and thought that either. I can rememebr my family not thinking much of him that he was weird (I dont know why they thought that at the time mind you and no Im not connected in anyway to whats go on)

He looked funny.

emotionsecho · 26/06/2014 18:17

Maybe STDG, look odd and eccentric and people won't look beyond it?

I know my mum used to cring at the stuff he wore and think something was 'off' with him.

His persona made it difficult for ordinary people to articulate what wasn't quite right about him possibly.

Kikaninchen · 26/06/2014 18:30

I used to love watching Jim'll Fix it, as did my siblings.

My mum hated watching it, she used to say he was a hideous, vile man and she felt sick at the sight of him. (we still always watched it, she stayed in the kitchen). My dad didn't like him either used to wind mum up (in a comic fasion) doing impressions of JS, putting his arm round my mum in a sleazy fashion and breathing down her neck.

I would have killed for a Jim'll Fix it badge, but I do remember thinking that I didn't like the way he would put his arms round guests and touch them (maybe this only entered my head because of my dad's impressions), and thinking I wouldn't like him doing that to me (but would have totally put up with it in order to get the badge).

FreudiansSlipper · 26/06/2014 19:05

I think by looking odd, acting the clown its part of hiding who he was you are thrown by this how can such a clown who does so much for charity really do the most awful things imaginable

I along with so many others heard rumours long before the internet rumours of necrophilia. I agree with whoever said that it was the culture of our time that protected him. I can not be the only one who had a creepy uncle/family friend who were told to stay away from and not play alone with. People just did not understand sexual abuse, how abusers would often seem normal to others, children just accepted what happened to them and were never encouraged to speak out

ClaudetteWyms · 26/06/2014 19:15

YANBU, as a kid I always just thought he was odd. One of my friends applied to Jim'll Fix It and got on it, I was a tiny bit envious of her being on the telly (being about 9 at the time!) but had no inclination to apply to go on it myself. She never spoke about it afterwards, at all, so I didn't think it could have been that great.

This is all beyond horrific. As a closet DI forum follower I am inclined to believe more and more of what I read on there...Sad

oldgrandmama · 26/06/2014 19:17

Nothing to be ashamed of, enjoying 'Jim'll Fix It' - the idea was great and Savile was obviously a master at disguising his disgusting proclivities. Hell, I used to like Gary Glitter - his act made me laugh.

I am more gobsmacked at how the so called 'great and the good' fawned on him ... now, of course, there's a lot of backtracking, surprise surprise. Savile would even pop into 'Highgrove' to have chats with Prince Charles, offering advice concerning that difficult royal marriage! To give poor Diana credit, she apparently didn't like him.

Delphiniumsblue · 26/06/2014 19:19

I liked Jim'll Fix It, but would have hated to meet him. He always seemed seedy.

Sparklypants · 26/06/2014 19:38

I always found him a bit creepy, although I couldn't have told you why at the time. The whole thing just leaves me cold and wondering who's going to be next :-(

TiredFeet · 26/06/2014 19:42

I grew up in Leeds in the 80s and was aware of rumours about his dodgyness from as long as I was aware of him. But I also recall people who really placed him on a pedestal

Original poster
MrsWinnibago · 26/06/2014 19:50

Limited OP here. I'd like to reiterate that I never suspected him of anything....I was 8! I didn't know enough about the world. I just didn't like him at all. I could SEE some of the children on the show were cowed by him and I think I sympathised with him as in the 70s, adults treated kids very differently to the way most adults do today.

adults were ALL powerful.

OP posts:
Original poster
MrsWinnibago · 26/06/2014 19:50

THEM not HIM. I sympathises with The kids not him!

OP posts:
CharlieSierra · 26/06/2014 20:03

Nigellas the link you have posted is deeply offensive, and I only read the first post.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 26/06/2014 20:17

I was in a hospital he used to do a lot of work in as a child. I desperately wanted him to come on to my ward. I was only little and had no idea.

Now I feel sick in case anything happened to an older girl there who befriended me as she was in and out a lot and I'm sure I remember her saying she had met him.

limitedperiodonly · 26/06/2014 20:17

mrswinnibago you said this in your OP:

I CLEARLY remember watching him on Jim'l Fix It and thinking "Oh he's HORRIBLE!" I hated him...he was frightening and I could see that some children were very scared of him on that show...

I challenge anyone to think back and remember how much they "loved" him at the time before his activities were known.

We are of the same age. So what are you trying to say: that at eight years old you watched Jim'll Fix It and realised that children on it were being cowed and yet I and many other children and, more importantly, their parents didn't?

What are you trying to say of people like me, who weren't as perspicacious as you aged eight?

Really?

Can you tell me who's going to win Wimbledon and the World Cup?

efeslight · 26/06/2014 20:27

I also think he didn't get away with this for years without a network of like minded people who all help each other out, so I agree with the OP-he knew too much for all this to come out when he was alive.
The link that scarlett...gives up thread is heart breaking - a whole list of childrens homes etc, where abuse was rife for many years, in Wales, Nottinghamshire.

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