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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:
waterbabys · 07/04/2022 14:29

I agree OP! I was a teenager when his death came up on the news and I vividly remember my mum saying she never liked him and gave her the creeps even as a wee girl. My dad was an avid Jim will fix it fan, even wrote in, and also fan of top of the pops and gave her a row for speaking ill of the dead ("the man's just died! Look at all his charity work!" Etc).Then a couple of months later it all came out about his abuses and my mum was well and truly vindicated.

yourestandingonmyneck · 07/04/2022 14:34

@Ozgirl75

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.
I wonder about this, too.
Ohquietone · 07/04/2022 14:37

I’ve finished watching it. Some of the comments he made when watched all together highlight the monster hiding in plain sight. Quite why he so was so involved at Broadmoor (though rumor has it, he might have been an accomplice to Peter Sucliffe). But it’s like his celebrity gave him the keys to the kingdom. The first child abuse police unit was only set up in the 90s and it seems the sleazy behaviour of men was seen as normal back at that time. Who he mixed with (royals, prime minister), the extensive charity work it seemed that many people felt someone who did so much good could never be evil but I suspect he used that. As he got older from the footage within the documentary it felt like he knew it could all come crumbling down quite soon. His headstone inscription also feels quite chilling “it was good while it lasted” now it has all come out.

Ozgirl75 · 07/04/2022 14:37

I’m not comparing Benny Hill to Savile - I’m saying that sexist jokes and letching after women were totally normal back then. Abuse is a different category, but the Savile program kept cutting to sexist and dodgy things that Savile said back in the 80s, like, that should have given the game away, but it didn’t because it was more normal for men to be like that, than not be like that.

jay55 · 07/04/2022 14:43

I didn't find him creepy as a child watching Jim'll fix it. I hated his cigars though.

As a teen I found him creepy as fuck whenever he was interviewed for a race, always leering and odd and wearing too short shorts.

Polyanthus2 · 07/04/2022 14:45

But letching after women happened to common types - not yournice well covered respectable ones - so if they were running around the parkin brief pants and push up bras .... well they got what they deserved.
Look at Barbara Windsor's characters.
The pill / sex before marriage was still only on the horizon for ordinary women.

cherrysthename · 07/04/2022 14:54

I thought he was a weirdo as a kid, he'd be sat there in a tracksuit with a cigar looking like an old creep on TV and I can recall asked mum, 'are we all supposed to love him or something?!' because he seemed like such a strange character.

HazelBite · 07/04/2022 15:04

I met him aged 18. (I'm now 70) and thought at the time he was deeply unattractive, and was aghast at all the females fawning over him at the time.
I think at the time it was all down to the cult of celebrity and people wanting some of the "glitter" rubbing off on them and then getting in too deep.
I watched a documentary about Michael Jackson and a similar situation arose, people basically being starstruck and allowing their kids to stay at his place.

x2boys · 07/04/2022 15:10

He raised million,s for charity and seemed eccentric,I like millions of other young kids loved Jim,I'll fix it
What I find more reprehensible,is that he was given the run of places like stoke Mandeville and Broadmoor etc despite the rumours and he was allowed to carry on abusing extremely vulnerable people lots of people where complicit in his crimes.

SpaghettiNotCourgetti · 07/04/2022 15:11

I always found him deeply creepy. I remember arguing with my dad about it when I was in my teens - I said I thought he was a creep and my dad said, 'But he's raised loads of money for charity - very religious man!'.

I think part of it was the cigars, oddly. I knew what they smelled of because my friend's grandad always smoked them - a man whom I also found quite creepy (and who likewise had long, white hair and rings on) and I couldn't see pictures of JS without imagining that smell. Plus, those shell suits. I'm very suspicious of those in general. Don't know why.

It taught me to trust my creep-dar, I have to say.

Xpologog · 07/04/2022 15:13

I can remember saying in the early 70s I could understand why he was a volunteer Porter at St James’s in Leeds, as it was a paid job. Of course now we know why.
He had keys and access to Broadmoor, where he was given a room. So many people must have known but kept quiet.

Xpologog · 07/04/2022 15:13

**Couldn’t understand why he was a volunteer Porter.

Pitafalafel · 07/04/2022 15:14

A documentary is one thing but the BBC should not be making a “drama” about Jimmy Saville.

They failed miserably for decades, before finally apologising and mew culpa when it was already far too late. Now it’s time for them to shut up about the whole affair. I find it really distasteful them making a drama - with TV license payers money no less.

MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 07/04/2022 15:17

I was completely fooled by Rolf Harris though

I knew about Rolf long before it came out, my friend had met him lots of times and said he was not someone you'd let anywhere near your daughter.

Blueeyedgirl21 · 07/04/2022 15:17

My MIL thinks he was ‘lovely’ and if the royals loved him then what’s the big deal

This is the woman who also thinks the women accusing Prince Andrew are ‘after his money’

I despair

Pitafalafel · 07/04/2022 15:19

another factor in how he got away with it IMO is that the BBC used to be viewed as a “Great” institution. Being a big name at the BBC was almost like royalty.

Now of course the BBC is variously seen as important/decent, but also variously as poor value for money/biased/establishment propaganda/out of touch, etc.

We don’t fawn over TV celebs anymore.

SpringHasEventuallySprung · 07/04/2022 15:24

He had a house near us and ALL the locals knew years ago that he was a disgusting lecherous male - everyone warned their children to completely avoid him. However, we couldn’t stop him coming into the village dressed in a kilt talking to and groping tourists! Everyone in the village knew there was something untoward about him and no local that I know of spoke to him or acknowledged him, they all despised him.

His home here is nothing more than a freak show now with numerous tourists and urban explorers wanting to see where he lived, it’s going to be demolished shortly, imo it should have been bulldozed years ago for what happened there.

I met him a few times in passing and he was over the top and overly touchy feely, it’s no wonder everyone in the village despised him long before news broke of the abuse he inflicted on others.

MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 07/04/2022 15:28

What was the 'unhealthy' relationship he had with his mother? It's always mentioned in documentaries, incest?

Theunamedcat · 07/04/2022 15:28

I didnt particularly like him as a child my cousins used to threaten to write in for me so I could meet him so I would cry

SpringHasEventuallySprung · 07/04/2022 15:35

The trouble is, he wasn't seen as repulsive (a bit odd, of course) or particularly 'creepy' at the time.

He was seen as repulsive, most adults who weren’t in his circle in our village saw him as a predator. As I said in my last post he had a house near us and everyone told their children not to go near him. He was told by my DH (and others) on more than one occasion to keep his distance from the children in the village. If he walked into a pub he was treated as a pariah and people turned their back on him.

Ohquietone · 07/04/2022 15:38

Very odd that he spent five days alone with his mother after she died in her open coffin.

MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 07/04/2022 15:39

His manner of speaking was really odd and Rolf Harris spoke the same to a certain extent. All that breathy now then, now then nonsense. Urghh.

MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 07/04/2022 15:40

@Ohquietone

Very odd that he spent five days alone with his mother after she died in her open coffin.
Yes, I mean I can understand over night , lots of religions do this but five days?! Was she in her coffin or was it just after she died?
Theunamedcat · 07/04/2022 15:41

Role Harris had me fooled honestly I was shocked