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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:
Inkanta · 07/04/2022 19:57

As a kid I found him creepy too - and didn't like the way he spoke to people - as if mocking and embarrassing them with a smug sneery look on his face. I couldn't at the time articulate my discomfort but I remember recoiling when he spoke for those reasons. He obviously didn't know how to connect and engage on a level with children or adults. I watched Jim'll Fix it - not for him - but to watch the kids live a dream. When he spoke to them before and after the activity I just cringed and endured that bit. Not watched this documentary yet but I will. Preparing self for the revulsion feeling.

Inkanta · 07/04/2022 20:01

He never had a genuinely affectionate facial expression in any of his TV appearances etc

Yes.

Hostaswordwoman · 07/04/2022 20:05

@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.

Tbh I absolutely loved him as a child in the 70s and longed for a jim'll fixit badge. I also loved Rolf Harris...
Totalwasteofpaper · 07/04/2022 20:11

@Chikapu

I always thought he was repulsive, he sickened me even a child. We were asked to write to Jim'll fix it at school and I refused because no way in hell did I want to go on there. I don't know why people thought so highly of him and the public grieving after his death was nauseating.
Yes!!!!

I remember WANTING to write but the idea of being picked qnd having to sit on his knee? Even as a 6 year old i was like "no, thank you"

I dont get how anyone was surprised by it beyond the fact it was kept quiet for so long

JackieWeaverHandforthCouncil · 07/04/2022 20:12

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itsgettingweird · 07/04/2022 20:17

@Lovebroccoli

I've always been suspicious of people who do lots for "charity" in the public eye

Really? You're suspicious of Captain Tom, and of all the famous people who raise money on Red Nose Day?

It's different. Cot Tom didn't do lots for charity.

He was doing something small and his DD made it into something bigger and due to the circumstances at the time and the media picking it up be became something bigger.

Red Nose Day is also lots of smaller
Enterprises doing something for a bigger corporation.

Jimmy saville did lots for different charities which he because very physically involved in over the years and allowed him
Access to vulnerable people he abused. His charity work was a facilitator at best for his behaviour but I fear more like the motivator.

I didn't feel that creepy feeling that people say they get about him. He was weird by the fact he deliberately dressed in a way to attract attention etc.

I was actually surprised when I heard the news he was an abuser. It scared me how someone so public could hide something so hideous from view for decades AngrySad

ForeverLooking · 07/04/2022 20:24

I found him scary looking as a child, but can't say I had any overwhelming bad feelings about him. He just reminded me of the child catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I can't say I was staggered when it came out that he was an abuser. Rolf Harris on the other hand genuinely shocked and surprised me. One of the last people I would envisage doing such awful things. The documentary is upsetting, the poor victims..

Clumsyvolcano · 07/04/2022 20:26

It’s called Hindsight bias - no one knew anything, they just think they knew or are saying so now they know what a heinous bastard he was.

I must admit he was one ugly bugger though 😂

StoneofDestiny · 07/04/2022 20:29

‘It's only with hindsight that people think of him as repellent'

Not true.
He stayed in a hotel I was in with my children (a marathon was taking place as I recall). He came in wandering around the breakfast buffet - got nothing and never sat down. I imagine he ate in his room. I told my other half not to let him speak to our children. I was met with a puzzled expression - but I found Saville repugnant, odd and shiver inducing. That's not hindsight - maybe some of us have a strong sense of the dangerous at times.

StoneofDestiny · 07/04/2022 20:31

........didn't have any 'alert' about Rolf Harris though

MrsFatArse · 07/04/2022 20:31

Lots of hospital staff in Leeds knew of him and his reputatiin but either daren't speak or were told to kerp quiet if they did... Powers that be wrte either happy to turn a blind eye due to the charity fundraising he did for them, or because they daren't challenge him as he had influence elsewhrre. For exampme his Friday morning gatherings with top brass in tne police at his flat.

CathyorClaire · 07/04/2022 20:33

You're suspicious of Captain Tom

He was genuine enough IMO.

His daughter not so much.

IBelieveInAThingCalledScience · 07/04/2022 20:37

I'm not British so I didn't grow up watching these people on television.

Having said that, I was fully under the impression that Rolf Harris seemed like a sweet, lovely old man.

I was truly shocked.

CathyorClaire · 07/04/2022 20:37

Lots of hospital staff in Leeds knew of him and his reputatiin but either daren't speak or were told to kerp quiet if they did

He also made it his business to find out things others would rather keep hidden and threaten to reveal them as a tactic to maintain the wall of silence.

So devious and conniving. A true psychopath.

Horological · 07/04/2022 20:39

It is definitely not hindsight bias. I am 60 and like many others on this thread I always found him weird and creepy and heard rumours about him. The documentary gives the impression that he was universally loved, and that really was not the case, even at the time. 20 million people watched Jim'll Fix It because there was nothing else to watch on TV and no computers etc. There was no choice.

The rumours were about necrophilia though. Rumours about him having sex with children would not have been particularly shocking. I know that sounds shocking now, but it was the way things were then. I did not ever meet him or work with him so I have no reason to be defensive or protective of anyone turning a blind eye. In those days men did awful things and got away with it. If you were a victim nobody would believe you, or you would be told to keep quiet. No blind eyes were necessary.

I am quite irritated by talk of 'conspiracy' being involved. Conspiracy wasn't necessary. The whole of society operated in that way to protect powerful men. You didn't even need to be told that, as a child you just picked it up from day to day living.

CathyorClaire · 07/04/2022 20:40

The Rolf Harris revelations were straight out of left field.

Prison doesn't seem to have reformed him either. See reports he was kicked off school premises having been caught wandering around.

Monitaurus · 07/04/2022 20:44

My dad sat next to him once in a hotel and said that he was creepy. As a stroppy teenager I felt obliged to disagree but knew he was right. I came across him once when the lift doors opened in the LGI and declined to get in with him. It is true that in those days women and girls were expected to tolerate sexist and intolerable jokes, pawing and worse. Sexual abuse was not really known about to the extent to how it is today. Many of us were naive . When people show you what they are , believe them. Which is why women and girls need to maintain private and sex segregated spaces...we have learnt a lot since the 70s and 80s, sadly

Notmrsfitz · 07/04/2022 20:44

When all the arrests and allegations were being made to celebrities from my childhood, my eldest son asked me why all these men looked like ‘perverts’ and ‘weirdos’ and surely everyone knew - and I had to explain to him that these men he saw weren’t the men I saw in the tv programmes as a child, I had to compare Rolf Harris with Neil Buchanan (sorry Neil) from art attack and say - when I was young that was ‘our’ Neil Buchanan, likewise singers and media stars they weren’t dodgy looking old blokes they were younger and influential and lived in a world that seemed fascinating, unfortunately some of these men used their status to poor effect.

Hertsgirl10 · 07/04/2022 20:45

I don’t think that the nation did love him, my parents used to always say he was a creepy perv back in those days, it was no shock to many people when all this came out.

Shimmyshimmycocobop · 07/04/2022 20:45

Not sure why people think it's hindsight that makes him seem creepy, watching this now his behaviour, mannerisms, strange way of pronouncing things are off putting added to which he was unattractive, and badly dressed. I mean what's not to love Grin?

It was a mystery how he got to present major tv shows then, even more baffling watching it now.

LetsGoCrazyPurpleBanana · 07/04/2022 20:46

I met him when I was around 13/14 in the mid 80s and he gave me the creeps even then.

Hertsgirl10 · 07/04/2022 20:50

@Clumsyvolcano

It’s called Hindsight bias - no one knew anything, they just think they knew or are saying so now they know what a heinous bastard he was.

I must admit he was one ugly bugger though 😂

@Clumsyvolcano My parents have been dead 25 years and they definitely said that he was a creepy old perv back in the old days, my mum used to say the same about R Kelly too, when we used to play Aaliyah she couldn’t get over the age ainy nothin but a number song and the rumours she was married to him.
MrsAmber · 07/04/2022 20:50

I was a child of the 70’s and loved Jim’ll Fix It, It’s a knockout, a bit of painting with Rolf and watching Garry Glitter on TOTP not to mention Benny Hill (my Nan couldn’t stand that programme).

I never thought anything about Saville tbh, I just liked the programme, repulsed by him since!

The fact that all of the programmes above are now forever tainted makes me feel weird really. The theme tunes etc make me feel nostalgic but it was all a sham wasn’t it!

littlemissnorthernbird · 07/04/2022 20:51

We used to see him often at a cafe near where he lived in the late 90s. He was always flirtatious with the waitresses and it was pretty much known that he was a creepy and strange character from people that knew of him. Having watched him as a kid growing up, this was a difficult concept to understand until the truth was revealed.

Clumsyvolcano · 07/04/2022 21:06

The reason I said it’s hindsight is because although he was creepy - as other posters have already pointed out that kind of behaviour was normal back then, a lot of men on tv were perverse and it was commonly joked about.

I’m sure a few people did get the creeps from him but given the fact he was seemingly universally loved, they would have been a minority, but yes he was utterly repulsive!