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 watched jim'll fix it every week but I don't remember having any kind of opinion about him. I don't remember him being as famous and everywhere as the documentary made him out to be though.

@BarmyBrunhilde
My mum detested him ( 1970’s)
I was a child and one Christmas Day mum was in tears as her parents were banging on about how great Savile was.
Mum said “ There is something really creepy and distasteful about him”.

Mum was sadly proven correct.

The Netflix documentary was shocking.
I bet him being part of “ The establishment “ (Freemason?!) helped him get away with grotesque sexual abuse for decades

Police were HOPELESS as Savile was well in with them, too.

Revolting creep.

I was watching the creepy clips of him on celebrity big brother the other day and couldn’t believe I must have sat there and not thought how disgusting it was! But like many pp I was programmed in the 80s/90s to accept that sort of predatory, sexist behaviour and normalise it, I’m so thrilled for my daughter (and son!) now that this sort of behaviour, even casual sexism is on the way out.

I was born in the early 80s and watched Jim’ll Fix It and wrote in to the show. I don’t remember loving Jimmy Savile or on the other hand being grossed out by him... but he was a massive celebrity in the early 90s and I don’t remember anyone slagging him off.

The Louis Theroux documentary was the first time I thought he was weird, but more in a tragic old lonely person way. I was really shocked when all the disgusting truth about him came out.

@7spanishangels - ah that's so nice to hear about Cheggers, I loved him!

With Savile I remember he used to claim in interviews that he really didn't like children which I thought was odd as he fronted a kids show. Obviously trying to pull the wool over peoples eyes. I presumed he was an eccentric batchelor who had an unhealthy relationship with his mother who he idolised.

Rolf Harris though, that was a shock. He used to cry at sick animals on Animal Hospital, thought he was lovely!

Also born in early 70s. Loved Jim’ll Fix It - just thought he was a bit of a ‘character’. Don’t really remember him on TOTP.
When all the historical abuse came out about him, Rolf and others I was gutted. It was like part of your childhood was a complete lie. I loved Rolf more than Jim too 😞

I was born in 1979. As a child, I loved watching Jim'll Fix It as many others did. I wrote to the show, like many others did.

As I got older I realised how weird he was, but put it down to eccentricity rather than anything more sinister. But then it's not like I followed him much once I'd grown up. I watched the Netflix documentary recently and was staggered by all the things he said in interviews and thought how brazen he was, in retrospect. "When nobody's looking, I help myself to the lasses too". He was adept at hiding in plain sight, largely as a result of the culture at the time. But there was no doubt plenty knew exactly what was happening - as Ian Hislop and Paul Merten's reactions to his 'jokes' on HIGNFY will show you.

I was a kid in the 70's and always thought he was creepy. Couldn't understand why everyone was so taken with him.

He always gave me the creeps even on TV.

My DM met him once. DPs were friends with the chief psychiatrist at Broadmoor, not far away, and went now and then for various events, inc. once a play put on by the inmates!

But on one occasion JS was there, and they were introduced.
DM, always a hyper sensitive type anyway, said (at the time) that he positively made her skin crawl. This would have been in the 70s.

Not being from the UK, I'd never heard of him until I first visited my p.i.l back in the early eighties and JS came on the TV.
To which my f.i.l snapped, get that slimey paedo off my telly!
I looked to see who he meant and I remember thinking, ugh you're probably right too.

But there was no doubt plenty knew exactly what was happening - as Ian Hislop and Paul Merten's reactions to his 'jokes' on HIGNFY will show you.

^^ Totally agree. Ian Hislop's face on the HIGNFY clip said it all.

One of the best examples of 'different times' was the Selina Scott interview with Savile. My god it was excruciating the way she felt obliged to giggle and simper at his pathetic, innuendo-laden jokes. She clearly found it so too watching it back. No self-respecting female interviewer would tolerate being spoken to like that nowadays. But that was acceptable tv back in the day. Thank goodness things have changed.

Talking of how different things were back then - one of my favourite "Fix-its" was the scouts who asked to eat their lunch on a rollercoaster, it cracked me up watching their faces - no way would that be allowed these days!

Does anyone remember the jaw-dropping kids tv programme, I think it was called mini-pops - prepubescent kids with make up dressed as adults, gyrating and thrusting to the tunes of the day? Utterly repulsive paedophile's dream. I think it was too much for the public and it didn't last long but bloody hell! Who commissioned that and put it together?

I remember my mother suggesting I write to Jim'll Fix It to be a zoo keeper with Johnny Morris. Although I love animals and Animal Magic I refused. However in 1983 I was in London and Johnny Morris got on the bus I was travelling on and for my 40th I had a zoo keeper experience in Bristol Zoo.

No inclination about Rolf Harris though. I called my rabbit Rolf after him and went to see his portrait of the Queen well before his fall from grace

I watched jim’ll fix it but i really wasn’t fussed at all about him

I wasnt a fan but I didn’t think that he was an awful person either

And I didn’t watch TOTP particularly or news/chat shows with him on

I was a child in the 70’s, and grew up watching JFI, but my DM used to go to Jimmy Seville’s Top Ten Club on a Sunday night at Belle Vue in Manchester.

She always said he was an absolute sex pest and very creepy and would never let me write to his show.

*edit - she went to his club night in the 60’s

My aunt used to play tennis with a well known BBC DJ (at the time) back in the ‘70s. He didn’t like Saville as he said ‘he liked them young, very young’.
My mum would always switch him off when he was on TV.

Born in 56 and always felt he was 'off'. My 'd'm wrote to jim'll fix it and, thankfully, never heard anything back. She had some very dodgy friends, so was probable like calling to like.

My late father in law hated him with a passion long before any of the sexual abuse stuff came out because of the Anti Union activities of his family.

Born 1970. I remember Jim’ll Fix It and wanting to go on it. I remember he made millions for charity. I do think I thought he was odd but nothing more. Plenty of people are odd. Now looking at the TOTPs footage of him blatantly groping young girls, you do wonder why there wasn’t more outrage but PP is right, we had rock stars marrying 14 year olds and Eastenders story lines of children sleeping with men so it must have been ‘normal’. It is certainly a clear indicator,of how society has shifted, for the better.

Like other people I had no inkling about Rolf Harris and would probably have let him baby sit. Awful thought.

My Grandad used to turn him off/over when he came on TV, he'd often say "I'm not watching that fcker in my house". My Grandad was a strong-but-silent type born in rural Ireland in the 20s, he rarely had visceral reactions to people but Savile used to outright disgust him, we never knew why.

I remember people in my generation calling him "a legend". I always thought he was weird, he made my skin crawl. Especially after the HIGNFY episode, urgh.

I found him vaguely unsettling, the same way I find David Walliams and James Corden and Johnny Depp unsettling. When he was very old I found him sad, and honestly thought he was either gay or making inappropriate jokes to cover the fact that he was asexual. Clearly I had no idea!

TBH i think there's a lot of revisionist "bad vibe about him" talk from people who only ever saw him on TV. I thought he looked really odd, that hair, the bling and the cigars really put me off. But not in a creepy uncle way, more of an embarassing cousin way. I'm in my mid 50s and remember seeing Saville all over the flipping place (TV, newspapers, opening stuff)

At the time he was doing TOTP so were other DJs who were up to the same thing: DLT and John Peel (although he married his underage girlfriend and they were together for years). There were zero rumours about them either, ditto Rolf Harris - you just didn't hear about that kind of thing. If people worked with them, they seem to have given out the "don't get in the lift with XX" talk to young women who came into contact with them, so I'm sure a lot of people back then who knew how bad they were.

Back then i am going to assume that research about who were the actual abusers wasn't that widely known - therefore the focus in warning us off people was all Stranger Danger and not the creepy uncles, scoutmasters, police and gym teachers that the abusers often turned out to be. And celebs.

Jimmy Savile was massively creepy and 'run away quickly' flowed off him in waves. On the other hand, walking past BBC in Ealing with my 8 year old daughter she squealed with delight when we bumped into Rolf Harris. He was lovely to her and I was glad he didn't just brush her off but took time to talk to her. Like pp above, I would have completely trusted him and was shocked by the revelations.