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Original poster

Jimmy Saville documentary on Netflix

365 replies

AlternativePerspective · 07/04/2022 12:39

Have just watched this, obviously we all know what he did and the absolutely reprehensible individual he was.

But watching the documentary and all the clips they played, even if he hadn’t committed all those hideous acts, he was a really creepy repulsive bloke. So why did the nation love him so much?

I’m not talking royals and other celebs etc, but ordinary people. The people who filed past his coffin after his death, and mourned his passing, sent in hundreds of tributes etc. Why? He was just so repulsive. Or is it just me?

OP posts:
MermaidEyes · 07/04/2022 13:28

I thought the documentary was done really well. I loved Jim'll Fix It as a kid and didn't really have any opinion on him, other than he was that bloke off the telly on a Saturday teatime. As an adult though, to phrase Ian Hislop, I find him 'deeply creepy'.

Original poster
AlternativePerspective · 07/04/2022 13:28

To be honest, I'm a bit surprised by all these people who say they 'always knew' or 'always thought he was creepy.' It's blatantly obvious that most of the population thought he was wonderful. tbh I think there’s a difference between thinking someone was creepy and thinking that you always knew what they were like/up to.

I don’t actually think there is anyone, even those who knew that he had abused people, who could have known the extent to which he was guilty.

But I think there are a lot of creepy people out there who aren’t necessarily sexual deviants/predators in the way he was.

I remember when all this came out and there were people saying that groupies often throw themselves at celebrities and I thought that couldn’t possibly have been the case here because he wasn’t remotely attractive or fanciable and really was a bit sleazy.

OP posts:
Starbonnet123 · 07/04/2022 13:35

I absolutely loved him as a child , he was every where and everyone's best mate and it was always our ambition to be on jim'll fix it but watching the program last night and seeing all the film clips of him being interviewed I could see how creepy and weird he actually was . He was such a predator and so cold and calculating .

Ozgirl75 · 07/04/2022 13:42

It’s true though that we almost expected middle aged men to just be creepy around young (teen) girls. I mean it’s not that long ago that The Sun did it’s countdown to Charlotte Church turning 18, it was just normal for teen girls to be perved over by older men. So I’m not sure that looking back and saying “oh he sleazed over girls on TOTP” is much of a revelation, they were all at it.
The actual abuse is totally different, but the general perving was totally normal until I reckon at least the mid 2000s. I started work in a law firm in 2002 and the hiring partner was very open about how he liked hiring women as the clients liked to look at attractive, clever girls. Gross.

LeavesOnTrees · 07/04/2022 13:47

From watching the clips in the documentary I don't think he became truly creepy and jokey about young girls until much later on.
At the peak of his fame in the 70s and 80s he was just seen as an eccentric, who's sexist jokes weren't any worse than anyone else's from that time.

The truly shocking thing is that victims weren't believed and that the police did nothing. I really hope we've reached a stage were no one is above the law ( although I doubt it).

As for Prince Andrew and his daughters, I think men like that believe there are two types of women / girls; their own princesses (literally in his case) and 'others' who they can use as they like.

LeavesOnTrees · 07/04/2022 13:49

Ozgirl75 Totally agree with all of this. I had similar experiences when starting work.

Salome61 · 07/04/2022 13:50

I worked at the Beeb in the 70's and used to open the Jim'll Fix It letters as overtime. Makes me shudder to think I might have unwittingly sent a child on the programme who was abused by this despicable man.

Ozgirl75 · 07/04/2022 13:51

I mean entire tv shows were made about gross men lusting after young girls (Benny Hill) and sexist jokes were just completely normal in the 1980s and before.

Scianel · 07/04/2022 13:51

I moved to the UK 20+ years ago and was utterly baffled at Brits liking this repulsive man. Can't say I was remotely suprised when it all came out, I remember reading an Irvine Welsh short story about a celebrity necrophiliac and someone told me it was based on Jimmy Saville.

Ozgirl75 · 07/04/2022 13:55

The thing I wonder is if men are still like this now, but just keep it in their head, or if they actually don’t see 14 year olds as fair game for ogling any more.

Sidge · 07/04/2022 13:55

I grew up in the 70s and 80s and met him.

He was strangely charismatic, very personable and friendly. Obviously knowing what we know now I find him utterly repellent but you have to understand we are viewing him through a different lens, one of the 2020s and knowing all that we know now.

Not condoning his behaviour AT ALL. But times were different then. We all watched Jim’ll Fix It on Saturday afternoon and we all wanted him to fix it for us. He was a bit of a national treasure, raised loads for charity and was a real public figure. Everyone knew his name.

wineisneedednow · 07/04/2022 13:55

@Lovebroccoli

Well I don't think anyone's going to cone forward now and say 'Oh I didn't think he was creepy as all, I loved him as a child

I used to enjoy Jim'll Fix It, and I don't remember having any opinion at all of him when I was a child. I certainly didn't love him, but didn't see him as anyone to be frightened of either.

To be honest, I'm a bit surprised by all these people who say they 'always knew' or 'always thought he was creepy.' It's blatantly obvious that most of the population thought he was wonderful.

Same. I watched the show when I was in primary school. I certainly didn't have a creepy feeling about him and didn't see him as being any different from any other TV presenter.

I'll be interested to watch the Netflix show.

Times have changed and it could be that I look back and wonder how it was seen as ok.

Libertybear80 · 07/04/2022 13:56

I came across the creepy all over the place. Mainly because of where I live and the job I did.

I told him to piss off on three separate occasions!

Mamamia7962 · 07/04/2022 13:59

Ozgirl75 - There were no young girls in the Benny Hill show, they were all women.

Ozgirl75 · 07/04/2022 14:02

But the general idea that an unattractive man could be openly sexually perusing younger, attractive, bikini wearing girls was the entire point of that show. I’m not saying Benny Hill was a perv, more that sexual harassment was just standard at that time.

DoctorSnortles · 07/04/2022 14:03

He was very odd. I used to enjoy Jim’ll Fix It; he was always peculiar but as a TV viewer it wasn’t something that particularly bothered me, but I was only about eight at the time. I didn’t like him out of his ‘Jim’ll Fix It’ mode, in shell suit and trainers, but then I’d just turn the telly off and go back to my Etch a Sketch. After he died, I was completely unsurprised to hear he was so revoltingly horrible.

What I don’t understand is why people want to spend so much time on him now, watching Netflix documentaries and talking about him. It’s weirdly prurient. I can understand his victims trying to work through what happened to them, and I have nothing but sympathy for them, but I don’t get why uninvolved people want to spend their evenings watching his grotesqueries and finding out more about him. But then, I don’t really like ‘true crime’ telly, either.

PermanentTemporary · 07/04/2022 14:08

I also quite liked his TV persona as a child and had absolutely no inkling of the reality until very late on. The sleaziness didn't really stand out that much in a world where Bill Wyman married Mandy having 'gone out' with her since the age of 13 and there were 14 year old 'groupies' funnelled backstage by enablers to musicians on tour. There were other celebrities I thought of as much more unpleasant.

2 years before he died I was on placement at Stoke Mandeville and a colleague appeared looking green and said Savile had letched at her in the canteen and was a dirty old man, and the rest of the team agreed like it was a known thing. That was the first idea I had that he wasn't just one of the slightly odd TV characters I grew up with.

ToffeeNotCoffee · 07/04/2022 14:09

I remember reading an Irvine Welsh short story about a celebrity necrophiliac

I watched a t.v. documentary nearly 30 years ago about JS's voluntary work at Broadmoor Hospital. He was parading around with a big bunch of keys and a big grin on his face.

I thought at the time....has he been security cleared ? Y'know like anybody else would have had to have been ? Or not because he's a celebrity.

He just liked to get up close and personal with what most people would find in poor taste/abhorrent i.e. the criminally insane, dead bodies, sexual interest in children, black mail of anyone who thought about challenging him.

As I once read. How come a no marks night club manager from the Midlands called JS got to be a popular radio DJ then celebrity then fundraiser then t.v. personality ?

Maybeitstimeforachange · 07/04/2022 14:15

Benny Hill was a massive perv. I agree I don’t see the interest in these kinds of programs, it’s like when people share child abuse stories on Facebook.

PenguinTherapy · 07/04/2022 14:15

It's difficult to admit these days but I did adore him as a child. I wrote into Jim'll Fix It so many times and watched everything he was on. He was weird but in a fun way. At least to me.

I do remember though, he was running a marathon in my area and visiting a local social club. I was desperate to go along but the bloke running the club said it was strictly no children. I was so upset. It didn't make any sense to me. The social club was usually a family place and he was obviously a children's entertainer. Looking back now though, the club president obviously had an inkling about him.

I can honestly say that I gave the guy very little thought in my later childhood/teenage and adult years. Somehow the Louis Theroux interview passed me by completely. I remember the day he died and seeing the breaking news coming up on my phone. I expressed shock and sadness, remembering him fondly from childhood but SiL, who was with me was horrified, saying he was a creep and she was glad he was dead. Our relationship has never quite been the same since then - she seems to think I am some kind of apologist due to my reaction that day.

BoredZelda · 07/04/2022 14:17

I too an highly suspicious of all those who "knew", said he was creepy.
He was a character, not unlike lots of "celebrities" in the 1970s. Every DJ was a character. He raised stack loads of money for charity, ran marathons before it was a thing. Surrounded himself with pretty women.
Of course he was utterly reprehensible and his victims we not listened to and ignored. Those that were told did not act.

Yep, it’s easy to look back with the knowledge we have now and see him as creepy. If he was so clearly problematic, even 40 years ago he wouldn’t have been so popular. The “I just knew” people who sat back and said nothing are part of the problem.

But to the general public he was just a bit of an odd bod DJ celebrity who was on the telly.

Yes, and there are loads of them now, are they all creepy too.

BoredZelda · 07/04/2022 14:20

What I don’t understand is why people want to spend so much time on him now, watching Netflix documentaries and talking about him. It’s weirdly prurient.

Not really prurient, I think it’s helpful for people to understand the story, how it happened, and how it can be prevented in the future. I haven’t yet seen the documentary but I’m unclear on just how he was able to get away with it. I’d watch the documentary to see if it sheds any light on that.

Clawdy · 07/04/2022 14:22

The Benny Hill intro was actually the girls chasing the men, not the other way round. I remember Ben Elton making the same mistake and reluctantly apologising to Benny Hill's family afterwards. It was a silly programme, but comparing him to Savile is all wrong.

LadyBadenPowellsHat · 07/04/2022 14:23

As another poster said, the innuendo and misogynistic comments were normalised back then. Men were always touching women's arms, legs, small of their back, trying their luck for a kiss and so on. And everyone turned a blind eye to that sort of thing, specially from someone as loved as he was.

He surrounded himself with the sort of folks who helped make him seem untouchable.

I'm currently watching this as I type this message. I'm nearly 40 and he creeped me the fuck out for a number of reasons, I didn't like his behaviour on JFI after coming home from school. It wasn't a massive shock to me that he turned out to be as slimy as he was because he came across the same way that plenty of men came across with me as I grew up, who took or tried to take liberties from me (not CSA, I mean as a teen and young woman).

Hidden in plain sight because people were used to men being slimy.

Polyanthus2 · 07/04/2022 14:24

He sort of talked to the kids on his show as adults, no humouring - it was quite nice. And the kids always seemed so articulate possibly because of this.

It was a different time - powerful men were lauded and feted. Powerless people were looked down on.

Sadly we can't say it's all better now with the porn, people trafficking etc bad people are still getting away with stuff