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 grew up watching Jim’ll Fix It and I loved it because lots of kids got great treats and that was fun to watch. Though I didn’t have a clue he was a vile predator who forced himself on children, I never really liked him. But there were so many vile ugly men on TV that he just didn’t stand out. Every other TV show had some version of a man leering at women, or pretending to be a woman in some nasty way. From Benny Hill to Kenny Everett, show after show normalised the sexual objectification of women and any girl with breasts and depicted women as frigid or sex objects. Even most otherwise really clever and well done shows still used this lever of engagement. Not the Nine O’Clock News, Morcome and Wise, even Monty Python all routinely had gags about leering at women or had men dressing up as (almost always “frigid” or “tarty”) women. If you’d asked people if men should leer at teenagers they’d tut and say of course not. But if they saw men leering at teenagers they’d laugh it off. Dressing up as a “sexy schoolgirl” was a standard fancy dress costume. It was just everywhere.

So I’m not sure I would have noticed if Jimmy Saville was a creep. Because they were almost all creeps. Probably not as bad as JS, but not really obviously and clearly different.

I had my doubts about Rolf Harris from the start. I think I was about six when he first came over from Australia , but he always made me feel uncomfortable, even though at that age I didn't know why.

I was warned about Savile in 1978 by a BF who worked at the BBC. Up to then I had just thought of him as a bit of an oddball. I get the impression 'everybody' knew, but no-one was willing to speak out and even when they did, the authorities did not join the dots.

The Stuart Hall revelations really shocked me ,he was a,local news.presenter on Look Northwest for years so I grew up.with him reading the local evening news .I know he also.presented " Its a Knockout"but I remember more for reading the news.

@FictionalCharacter absolutely. I was close to some of the investigations after his death taking testimony's from victims from a health perspective. The mortuary allegations have more than an element of rumour. How he gained access to the LGI and then other hospital settings on the back of it is very interesting but I can't remember how much is in the public domain so won't go into details.
It was the worst kept secret in every hospital he had links to and many a ward sister who wasn't taken in by him had strategies in place to protect their patients where they could.
He also raised substantially less for charity than was headlined. He claimed high expenses for him and his entourage which charities were happy to pay in exchange for the 'kudos' of his involvement.

I appreciate you can't go into details ,but when was he so "Sainted" why was e allowed to go unchecked ,particularly if he hadent, raised as much for charities as was reported?

I think a lot of us felt he was just a repressed gay from a generation before it was cool to come out. We thought he was a bit sad and lonely if anything.

All that stuff about his mother , ' the Duchess ' and what a good Catholic he was blah blah. Nobody in Leeds can recall seeing him in church afaik?

He invented this persona as a sort of rebel. But as I said before he didn't seem to have any interest in music. Whereas djs like Alan Freeman , Peel , Annie Nightingale or Johnnie Walker really knew about it - and obviously loved it.

He certainly had ' pull' over important people. Eleven New Years Eves with the Thatchers. Wtaf.

What @NumberTheory said.

JS didn't assault Mrs Thatcher or Princess Diana. He knew who had power and who didn't.

I never suspected a thing as a child. In my mind I mixed him up with another presenter because their jokey, innuendoey schtick seemed the same. Even when my colleague came back from the canteen at Stoke Mandeville saying 'urgh JS was there, he's disgusting and letched at me' I only thought that he was a vile old showbiz hack who still thought he 'had it' in his 80s, not a rapist.

@x2boys it's tricky to describe without disclosing too much but he had a contact pre dating his DJ days who was influential in his own way within hospitals who shared his 'interests' which opened the way for him. This person is also long dead.

I do think everything gathered pace in a way that likely felt impossible to stop in terms of his charity work. It gathered publicity which in turn generated donations to the charity from elsewhere and the cycle needed a number of people to put their heads above the parapet and stop it.

Friends in high places was one of the biggest contributors to him not being stopped in my opinion.

Yes that would make sense when you look at who he associated with .

He certainly had ' pull' over important people. Eleven New Years Eves with the Thatchers. Wtaf.

It's rumoured that his extraordinary access - & chumminess extending to fireside chats at Chequers over several Christmases - is because he was a procurer for seriously senior politicians & businessmen.

Grew up in the 70s and 80s. I liked seeing kids having their dreams come true, so I liked Jim'll Fix It, the show, and didn't really have a POV about Savile as a little kid, although my mum and dad found him... I guess "vulgar" is a good word. Coarse and odd - my mum hated him breathing cigar smoke over kids etc...

As I got older, as a teenager, I hated his grovelling around the Royals and Thatcher.

I never minded Rolf Harris. He seemed nice.

I loved Jim'll Fix It for the things the kids got to do but I didn't like him. It's not hindsight speaking but he just gave me the creeps.

@MadKittenWoman Yes I was saddened by Rolf Harris.

My dh died 19 years ago and we never watched JS whom dh referred to as the perv. There was something really creepy about him that used to make you cringe

I am firmly of the belief he procured for rich, famous and influential people.

I remember Jim'll fix it, and of course I wanted to go on and ask for my own flying unicorn or something. I never wrote in. I didn't know him from anything else, and he wasn't on my radar at all after that, so I was indifferent.

As a kid I found him creepy and odd. I definitely wouldn't have wanted to sit on his knee in Jim'll Fix It.

Don't discount a child's intuition....

I find it interesting how every time this subject comes up it's full of people saying they thought he was creepy etc.
I'm wondering what the response would have been before he was arrested.
I remember one of the girls at primary having written to him for Jim'll fix it, and we were all terribly hopeful she'd get on (she didn't). I don't recall anyone child or parent, saying anything negative at the time.
We didn't watch much TV, but I can't recall having any opinion about him other than lucky kids who got their dreams.

i met him at a function in 1991 it was the Manchester taxis kids day out to the pleasure beach in Blackpool, basically Black Cab taxis lots of them gave deprived kids a day out, we were cooking the fish and chips for everyone, my impression scruffy, untidy, not very clean looking, scrawny and i wasnt impressed to well met hail fellow for me

I'm in my 60's
Yes, we loved Jimmy Saville 🤦🏽‍♀️
We read his book, "Love is an Uphill thing" which of course was written from his point of view!
He was eccentric and raised so much money for charity ( we thought)
It just goes to show how wrong you can be. I watched the documentary by Louis Theroux and was disgusted 🤮

I liked Jimmy Saville and was absolutely shocked when the truth about hits came out.

Yes it would be interesting to see what pie learning were saying when he died,the streets were lined with people during his funeral and i remember lots of celebrities giving their heartfelt condolences.

People*

I grew up 70's - teen in the 80's and i couldn't stand him , he repulsed me , my mom too , i can't remember any comments from my dad but the type of things Saville was on my dad didn't watch anyway.

He was viewed by the public as eccentric, flamboyant, odd, generous. Running marathons for charity. Doing cycle races and being awarded a green beret by them Royal Marines. He helped out as a hospital porter. Now some behind the scenes at eg BBC and the press knew different but he was untouchable and careful so they couldnt prove a nything

I was born in 1980 so grew up with the whole “fix it” thing. I absolutely loved it, he was like a fairy godmother (father) and for children who had pretty deprived, shit lives (like me) it felt like he was the only person who could make your dreams come true. Sad but that’s how it felt. I never for one second imagined he was a predator. But then when you’re a little kid you don’t even really know what that would mean. As an adult I can see he was creepy as fuck.