To wonder what people really thought of Jimmy Savile when he was alive?

[BarmyBrunhilde]

I'm a millennial, and was only really vaguely aware of who he was really, so watching the recent Netflix documentary I was fairly bemused to see how popular he seemed to be. Obviously he was beloved by the establishment, including the royals, Thatcher etc but he seemed to have massive following among the public.

Everyone now seems to say 'oh yes I always knew he was creepy' but I have to wonder - for those who grow up in the 60s-80s how was he really seen? In the documentary it seems like he had always had crowds of screaming and adoring fans, and they generally seemed none the wiser? It seemed like industry people and his poor victims were the only ones who really had any idea.

I remember him on TOTP. I hated it it when he was on. I was a 70s child and an 80s teenager and really really hated him hosting Totp. I watched jim'll fix it and always wanted to be on it but never wanted to sit in the chair next to him!

I grew up in the 80s in Leeds and it was common knowledge what a creep he was, long before anything came out in the press. Often used to see him jogging in Roundhay Park, horrible man.

Born in 1970. As a child, watched jim'll fix it regularly and utterly loved him.
Obviously sickened now.

I was born in the 1970s and quite enjoyed Jim’ll Fix It and TOTP. I never got a particularly bad vibe from him tbh. In fact in later years when the rumours swirled, I thought that he was being unfairly derided just because he was a bachelor and a bit odd looking. I was taken in!

I was born mid-80s, I loved Jim'll Fix It and wrote in once, but it would have been just after the final series in 1994, so I only really became aware of it right towards the end of its run. After that, I remember being mildly bemused by him - the whole look with the cigar and the shell suits etc, totally out of keeping with how a 70+ year old "should" look/behave, but I'm not sure I paid enough attention to any interviews or anything to pick up on the creepy vibes.

I’m 54. My late mother suggested writing to Jimmy Fix It for something I wanted to do, can’t remember what it was but I didn’t write in because he was creepy. I was too young to articulate it, but watching him on TV gave me the creeps.

I lived in Scarborough and he used to frequent two restaurants. He’d go on his own and just table hop, looking for recognition and adulation. We just thought he was a sad old bloke tbf.

I always thought he was gross - found him utterly bizarre. I was a kid in the 1970s.

As a child of the 80s Jim ll fix it was one of my favourite programmes and he was always on the tv . Looking back now he seems really creepy but this was an era when a rolling stone in his 40s married a 16 year old after dating her for years and page 3 in the sun had a countdown till Sam fox was 16 , EastEnders had a pregnant school girl as a major storyline with her friends dad as the father which I don't remember being shown as seedy or grooming but more of a love story . So his awful jokes about young girls weren't so shocking in the context of the time . A lot of things look hideous now looking back as an adult.

I remember watching Jim’ll Fix It. I wrote in once.

I didn’t think much off him. In the days of Timmy Mallet and Mr Blobby he kind of blended in.

My dad used to laugh and say he was weird but I think that was mostly because of his mad haircut.

I got creepy vibes from RH - was when he used to do that weird panting when he was colouring in. Made me SO uncomfortable. But not from JS. He was just another television larger than life character.

It's hard to convey what celebrity was like back then. It was different. There was more control of what people knew about famous people's private lives. It was much more unusual to have been on TV at all, and only a few channels. Jim'll Fix It ran for almost 20 years and at one point apparently had 20 million viewers, even at the end it was said to have 7 million. He was on that, and on Top of the Pops, and on the radio, and loads of other programmes, and adverts for healthy good things like trains and seatbelts, and charity appeals (I hear now he was actually paid for fronting those!) He was everywhere, apparently using his fame 'for good'. And the horrible sexist jokes and comments were much more 'normal', we sort of expected it, you were supposed to be polite and pleasant about it and thank the nice gentleman for the compliment; you weren't supposed to really like them but you weren't supposed to call the police either.

There were rumours about a lot of celebrities too. Rumours of bad things like having affairs or being gay, shock horror. TBH a lot of people then would have found 'goosing' a young teenager, also known as sexually assaulting them, much less shocking than Savile being gay. I'm not saying what he did was acceptable then, it absolutely wasn't. But the idea that a grown man with an incredibly successful career and apparently 'access' to 'stars' and 'beauties' would devote his time to victimising vulnerable people, girls if available but any victim he could find otherwise, would have been considered ridiculous.

Hostaswordwoman

Born in 1970. As a child, watched jim'll fix it regularly and utterly loved him.
Obviously sickened now.

Snap. Thought he was hilarious, brilliant entertainment. I have a theory he got away with saying things that are now obvious truths disguised as humour because of two things - general culture of the time and also he was so odd looking and so unlikely a Casanova that no way could he have any sexual desires etc. So we all laughed at the idea of ‘his case coming up next Thursday’ etc.

I was a kid in the 70’s. I always thought he was creepy and had a weird vibe. I found it uncomfortable watching him on things like top of the pops.

I grew up in the 70s and 80s and thought he was a bit odd and wouldn't have wanted to be around him much, but used to see him running the London Marathon every year for children's charities and making kid's dreams come true on Jim'll Fix It, so it was more of an eccentric type of odd. I remember the tribute programmes when he died when everyone was still saying how much he'd done right up until the truth came out. It's sickening to think that people did know when he was still around to pay the price.

I wrote in to Jim’s Fix It, so I must have liked him. But then I was in the Rolf Harris Cartoon Club, so what does that tell you?

I was born in the 60s and thought of him as an odd character - I didn’t like the way he dressed or the humour he used but didn’t think paedophile either

Rolf Harris shocked me more as he came across as quite benevolent
Stuart Hall was a lecherous individual I remember him perving at all the young females on it’s a knockout - even worse when I saw him at a live version

I loved Jim'll Fix It and wrote in a few times. 🤮

i was an age where i used to watch JWFI couldnt stand the guy even then to weird looking and just gave me a bad feeling

now Rolf Harris i was stunned as i liked him on animal hospital,was a terible shock

Born 1971. I loved the programme Jim'll Fix it. I didn't really have an opinion on Jim himself. I neither liked, nor disliked him. I just loved watching kids get their wishes. The only rumour I heard was my mum saying he beat people up in a previous job. I never heard rumours of him being creepy or abusive.
Now I can see how creepy he seemed, but I didn't notice it as a child watching JFI

I'm in my 50s. I always found him creepy and couldn't see why people adored him. Rolf Harris on the other hand...

I really did not like him ever. Not because I had some sixth sense about his paedophilia, but because he looked repulsive to me as a child/teen . Physically repulsive. Also, all that yodelling and repeating phrases got on my nerves a lot. Not sure I ever knew anyone who liked him 🤔 I think kids my age probably liked his "Gate Keeper" power with the TOTP and Jim'll Fix It .

They thought he was creepy, a bit like how people think Justin Fletcher and Ricky Gervais and Chris Tarrant creepy.

Of course none of the above are handsy or nonces.

I was repelled by JS. I loved the programme, seeing children achieve their dreams but I couldn’t have ever gone on the programme as he made my flesh crawl. Couldn’t say why, but he was creepy.

I never got this vibe from Rolf Harris though and was really saddened that he is another vile POS.

Ken Dodd was also very big in the 1970s and he was another one who made my flesh crawl.

@PermanentTemporary

It's hard to convey what celebrity was like back then. It was different. There was more control of what people knew about famous people's private lives. It was much more unusual to have been on TV at all, and only a few channels. Jim'll Fix It ran for almost 20 years and at one point apparently had 20 million viewers, even at the end it was said to have 7 million. He was on that, and on Top of the Pops, and on the radio, and loads of other programmes, and adverts for healthy good things like trains and seatbelts, and charity appeals (I hear now he was actually paid for fronting those!) He was everywhere, apparently using his fame 'for good'. And the horrible sexist jokes and comments were much more 'normal', we sort of expected it, you were supposed to be polite and pleasant about it and thank the nice gentleman for the compliment; you weren't supposed to really like them but you weren't supposed to call the police either.

There were rumours about a lot of celebrities too. Rumours of bad things like having affairs or being gay, shock horror. TBH a lot of people then would have found 'goosing' a young teenager, also known as sexually assaulting them, much less shocking than Savile being gay. I'm not saying what he did was acceptable then, it absolutely wasn't. But the idea that a grown man with an incredibly successful career and apparently 'access' to 'stars' and 'beauties' would devote his time to victimising vulnerable people, girls if available but any victim he could find otherwise, would have been considered ridiculous.

This seems very insightful to me and rings true of what my Mum told me - it seems weird now, but even growing up in the 00s, it seemed liked all 'sex scandals' were kind of rolled into one. Obviously the scale of his utterly grotesque crimes were on another level, but there was a general sense of being gay/unfaithful and liking 'younger girls' that were sort of conflated as though they are were all comparable in some way?? (Even though of course being gay is fine, unfaithful is wrong, and a pedophile is pure evil!)

Great post @PermanentTemporary yes, that's how it was.