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

[MrsWinnibago]

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.

Interesting Oryx Perhaps the divide between those of us who thought he was a dodgy bastard and those who had no inkling of any sinister overtones is a more generational thing. And by that I'm NOT saying anything about the judgement of older people on the divide, not at all - more that perhaps in the 60s and 70s he did appear less dodgy and in later years, to us children of the 80s and 90s, he became just a repulsive old man in an ill fitting tracksuit.

YABU, people were still defending him after this initially came to light.

I really can't think how or why he was allowed so much unrestricted access to hospitals etc, even into the morgue at night. Didn't anyone think it was odd at the time?

I just find it quite strange that nobody did anything about it at the time.
Did he really have that much influence over people? Or where they so blinded by his "wonderful fund raising charity work" that were prepared to turn a blind eye to was was a hell of a lot of abuse!

Shame he's dead really isn't it and can't be punished for what he did.

SarcyMare I took too long typing out my post - wasn't copying, honest.

I used to love Jim'll Fix It but there was always something about him that I didn't like but I just couldn't put my finger on it. I guess he came across a bit creepy.

I applied to go on Jim'll Fix It. Was very disappointed not to get a reply. Now I'm very thankful.

People thought his work as a hospital porter in Leeds showed how down-to-earth he was, never imagined it was so he could access vulnerable people.

My Mother had a little to do with TV production in the 80s and did hear rumours that 'he liked children too much but he has it under control'. These days you'd take a reputation like that very seriously, in those days no-one did anything. They thought it was just a childless man who enjoyed spending time with children, the same way some people who regret not having kids used to run the Scouts or coach youth football (and now we know some of them were wrong'uns).

My Mother couldn't to anything, btw, she'd just heard a rumour that he wasn't very nice, no solid accusations and never so much as met the guy herself.

Knew people who worked for one of his connected organisations and there was talk about him. I think much was known but people were afraid to speak out.

He always struck me as creepy.

Vivi I was watching him in the 70s....I knew he was wrong.

Squirrel they've just said on radio how the hospital he was most active in actually wanted him as general manager as he kept the staff in line!

They were all bloody terrified of him!

I remember watching Jim'll Fix it and thinking that there was something about Saville that I didn't like. but I couldn't articulate what it was that made me uncomfortable

I loved the dream come true element of the show too, but again, like lots of pps, I found him rather creepy. He made me feel slightly repulsed, in a way that other children's presenters of the time did not (Noel Edmunds, Bill Oddie, John Noakes etc). It is interesting that many of us felt uneasy about him just from watching him on tv, while we were young children, and yet he was given job after job and role and role that brought him in contact with young and/or vulnerable people. Surely the adults working around him must have found him disgusting?

I never saw Jim'll Fix It but do remember seeing him in something a couple of years before he died and thinking he was really creepy. I really didn't like him and couldn't understand why he was so loved, he seemed really wrong to me.

Vivi, yes - you may have a point there. I don't remember being very aware of him, except on the news about his charity stuff, after the mid-70s, as I didn't watch any of his TV appearances after that. Although his horrible crimes spanned those decades, too...

Line runner, I remember that thread! Did it get deleted?

I commented on here about Savile's dodginess (in a hilariously comedic post, naturally) a couple of years ago and got deleted. Maybe it was the same thread.

I felt exactly as the OP as a child, my parents thought he was awful; it was when I found out that he employed lawyers full time that my suspicions were confirmed. Then he died and it all came out.

The comedian Jerry Sadowitz was making allegations about Savile's necrophilia and paedophilia as far back as 1987. The revelations weren't a surprise to everyone.

Now it seems unbelievable he was allowed to run Broadmoor - not just visit, fgs - and allowed to get his mate the top job at Leeds General Infirmary. Back then, Thatcher used to welcome him to Downing Street and Edwina Currie put him in charge of Broadmoor. Bizarre even if he hadn't been a sex offender.

YANBU Viivi. I'm a child of the 80s. It's was a running joke in the playground at primary school that he was a paedo.

I remember saying after hearing of Operation Yewtree that it was the most shocking celebrity scandal since Dale Winton came out.

I feel quite sick about it all.

oh a LOT of people knew what Savile was up to including that rancid woman

I was born in the 80s... I didn't like him. I didn't see him as dodgy, I just didn't like him in the same way I didn't like other stuff which wasn't creepy. I know my older brother LOVED it.

Tethers, yes that would be the same thread. It might have been in Chat so just disappeared anyway, but maybe it got deleted.

I gave up on it because the Savile defenders were an unstoppable force.

80's child and I hated the sight of him. Something just told me that he wasn't right and I would feel very uneasy and my skin would crawl when he was on the tv. Couldn't figure out for the life of me why though at the time.

I absolutely agree, OP; even as a child in the 70s I thought he was revolting, with a horrible manner and hideous clothes and jewellery. And this was despite the fact that as a child I (and I imagine most children) didn't much notice or judge other people's clothes or appearance.
Sickens me to the stomach that so many must have turned a blind eye to his abusing hundreds of vulnerable and even dying children.

I remember, Line. Lots of paedo-hysteria allegations.

I don;t think it';s a generational thing. I just think some kids have an instinct about these things. My younger DD for isntance doesn't like a certain man we know....she has no reason to take against him and I'm not saying he's a pervert...not at all! But I just trust her instincts. If she doesn't want to be near him or in the same room as him then that's fine by me.

Who knows then, some thought he was dodgy, some didn't, regardless of decade. I have very vivid childhood memories generally, and I genuinely recall watching him in the early 80s as a small child and thinking urgh, creepy man. I'm honestly quite surprised that anyone watching him at the same time didn't think the same.