The Reckoning: Jimmy Savile - BBC1 9 Oct SPOILERS

[YokoOnosBigHat]

I couldn't see a thread for the five part drama The Reckoning starring Steve Coogan as Jimmy Savile, so thought I'd start one.

I'm in bed with Covid so have decided to start watching. Half an hour into the first episode and I can safely already say that Coogan's performance is extraordinary. The voice, the mannerisms, they're amazing.

For anyone interested and who isn't familiar, the framing device of Savile telling his life story for an author interested in writing a book is based around Dan Davies's research for his account 'In Plain Sight'. Well worth a read for anyone who wants to know more about how the establishment wilfully ignored what was going on right under their noses.

Interesting article on the drama by Mark Lawson for The Guardian here and Lawson's account of how he tried and failed to report Savile at the BBC in 2006 here.

Look forward to discussing this all. Have marked it as spoilers as all parts are on iPlayer and are there really any spoilers possible for this story?!

Shit- just seen there's already a thread- blame the Covid I'll keep this one up for spoilers and let everyone know on the other thread.

Well, like you say, there’s no spoilers for something like this, really? When it’s been in the public domain for years. But the OP of the other thread is very touchy about this kind of thing. Watching at TV pace seems so old-fashioned to me now, seems crazy waiting a week for a new episode.

I’ve watched the first episode and will watch the next three by the end of this week.

saw the trailer for it this morning & agree Steve Coogan looks like he plays the part amazingly

I don't know how I can watch it living in Germany, but I'm going to my London flat next week, and will watch it on iPlayer.

That's fair enough, thems the rules over on those threads, totally respect that. But yeah, SPOILER: he's a wrong un 😂😂😂😂

I think what's mad is how many people knew he was a wrong un even at the time. Lawson talks in that article about the gossip about him in Leeds in the 70s and 80s and how prevalent it was. My Dad came across Savile several times when he was managing the Ilford Palais back in the late 50s and he was apparently a well known creep. My Dad and his mates all knew to not let their girlfriends and girl mates near the old letch and he was telling these stories as far back as I can remember.

My Dad was very much not surprised when it all came out. So many people had stories, there's no way it wasn't an almighty cover up.

Thread diversion. ->

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/4911729-the-reckoning-bbc-1-mon-9th-9pm-and-tue-tv-pace-no-spoilers

He had an adopted son?

More an accomplice than 'son'. Google him.

Ah ok. That one. There's an absolutely riveting doc on the yewtree doc on him and the way they uncover evidence, in real time.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-30441291

Oh thanks for link, I hadn't heard of him before myself, just had quick Google.

Steve Coogan is playing him almost too well!

a few questions:
The way they are portraying his relationship with him mother is surprising to me. I thought they were freakishly close? She doesn’t seem to like him at all.

why didn’t they show a real photograph of him with Thatcher?

In 2011 he said to the interviewer Dan Davies, who wrote the book that this series is partly based on:

"My mother never got round to being proud," he said. "If anyone said, 'What is Jimmy like?' she would say, 'I don't know what he's up to, but he's up to something'.
"She never trusted me as she thought I was going to get nicked and end up in the pokey."

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/jimmy-savile-mum-agnes/

I wonder why Louis Theroux didn't get a mention? Those 2 documentaries were huge at the time. Perhaps because the interactions with Dan Davies were broadly similar?

My parents were ordinary folk with no showbiz connections apart from having a telly.
I wasn't allowed to watch his kids show and it was turned off instantly he appeared on screen.

That's weirdly sad. I have found his interactions with Agnes in episode two very upsetting; he so clearly wanted the approval of her and I'm not sure that he ever got it. And his relationship with her undoubtedly shaped how he perceived women.

I thought this, but LT was only asking similar questions to DD, I suspect it would have made the narrative messy to include him. Or they didn't know who could possibly play him

Yes, it's not what I was expecting either, but i think that's because my whole view of their relationship was form how Savile described it to Louis Theroux 28 years after her death. That was clearly a very idealised view and not how she really was with him.

I think maybe he gets closer (....) To his mother as she gets frailer

If you search YouTube there are some very interesting documentaries and old interviews that give a lot of background. There’s at least one interview in his mum’s house where there are conversations with her. It was a very strange relationship and it seems to me that she was a dysfunctional person herself.

Don't forget in the small print it does say some of it is fictional, purely made up for dramatic effect.

Just wondered how far this goes. I am interested in watching, but I'm assuming they're not showing the actual abuse? That would be too much for me.

It's been very well done, Coogan plays the part excellently. I can't help feeling that the BBC are trying to cover their arse a bit though

Possibly it was that the balance of power changed as she became increasingly frail.

Pasting this here. On the non spoilers thread theres wondering if the nice portrayal of his mum was to appease his family. One of saviles brothers was sacked as a mental health nurse for sexually assaulting a patient

https://amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/oct/07/the-reckoning-first-look-jimmy-savile-steve-coogan-bbc

No. They show the prelude and the aftermath so far of what seen