[Closed] BBC to make Jimmy Savile Drama!

What are they going to do about all the stuff that hasn't come out yet ?

Poor taste.

It's not just the BBC that were complicit

It was common knowledge among the press & entertainment industry, even government

Thatcher was warned by her civil servants not to work with him, but she gave him a knighthood anyway

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/advisers-warned-thatcher-against-knighting-savile-tthcxzhx87n

Hospitals ensure he worked, such as Stoke Mandeville covered it up & silenced whistleblowers

The police laughed off his accusers

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/may/10/jimmy-savile-police-apologise-blunders

Its probably a story that needs to be told

I agree, it is in bad taste, it just smacks of making something controversial for audience figures which seeing as real people suffered doesn't sit right with me at all. Plus the BBC funding is a given, it doesn't *need* viewers to survive.

Thatcher was warned by her civil servants not to work with him, but she gave him a knighthood anyway

The Queen dishes out knighthoods doesnt she?

I dont think this is anything that needs to dramatized for TV. It stinks of trying to make money off the back of the whole sordid story. I imagine the BBC will make millions selling the rights around the world.

You're probably all aware of this, but Alastair McGowan has already played Savile in a Maitland play.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jun/12/an-audience-with-jimmy-savile-review-alistair-mcgowan-is-repellently-convincing

I say do it, as long as any victims are completely anonymised, and establishment coverups are included. If we can make top-selling 3 part dramas about British serial killers then why not this?

(BTW- I'd probably not watch it)

Reminds me to subtly avoid paying my license around time this is put out on box.

Boycott BBC would be sensible option here.

For good preferably!

Are the BBC the best company to make this? Since they were complicit in his criminal proceedings, covered up his vile deeds?

How many of the current directors/managers/employees of the BBC were complicit in any of what Saville got up to? like codybrennan says, they show films about other criminals, what's so special about Saville?

Also who tf are they gonna play the main role? The guy’ll come out the audition ringing his partner like
‘Darling, I got the part, I got the part, they don’t want me for a bit part, they want me for the MAIN ROLE.’

Michael Sheen, nailed on. you can see him now, sitting in front of a mirror putting on different blond wigs and saying "now then, now then" in modulated yorkshire accents

I agree, it is in bad taste, it just smacks of making something controversial for audience figures which seeing as real people suffered doesn’t sit right with me at all. Plus the BBC funding is a given, it doesn’t *need* viewers to survive.

Reminds me to subtly avoid paying my license around time this is put out on box.

Boycott BBC would be sensible option here.

For good preferably!

Isn't this kind of head in the sand attitude that let Saville and others get away with it for so long

Confronting the past no matter how grim is how we learn from our mistakes

(Hypocrisy alert : doubt I'll watch it!)

Plus the BBC funding is a given, it doesn’t *need* viewers to survive.

So they should just shut the studios and open a savings account?

Can't win can they. If BBC make it then it's a coverup, if ITV make it then it would opportunism, if C4 made it then it would be too edgy, if C5 made it .......... if UKTV made it then it would be too long and padded out with pointless cuts to interview, if Netflix made it it would be 3 seasons long padding out an hour of archive footage with interviews, but filmed in 4k HDR on very expensive prime lenses.

and if The Adult Channel made it?

He liked his bikes. Wonder if the prop department will be able to find suitable, or perhaps even the actual, bikes for this.

Whatever happened to his bikes? Hmm.

Planet X bought em didn't they? Chucked in a skip by now I would think

Some folk need to get a grip pleny of actors have played Hitler he was a bit of a wrong un too. David Tenents just done Dennis Nelson and his saucepan on ITV, shall I not buy anything that was advertised in the breaks

Growing up in the 80s on Leeds everyone had a story about someone having dodgy encounter with Saville. Never mind the BBC been complicit a whole city was.

Whatever happened to his bikes? Hmm.

Planet X bought them all, didn't they?

EDIT - some of them

https://road.cc/content/news/62676-planet-x-bid-and-win-four-jimmy-saville-bikes-auction

David Tenents just done Dennis Nelson and his saucepan on ITV,

The entire country didn't sit down and watch Dennis Nilson sit kiddies on his lap every Saturday teatime.

This isn't about the horrific nature of his crimes, it's about the collective guilt and embarrassment of an entire nature who didn't see what was right under their noses until it was too late.

That's why it's uncomfortable and why I'd likely get banned for making the "Tour de Nonce" joke about his bikes that's currently buzzing round my brain.

If it makes anyone feel any better about their collective guilt, I once bodychecked Jimmy Saville in the foyer of the Moat House Hotel in Glasgow and knocked him flat on his arse. I growled at him and walked away without apologising. I felt bad about it for years afterwards but now my conscience is clear.

The BBC people I knew back in the 80s/90s certainly knew he was a bad bloke.

David Tenents just done Dennis Nelson

I'm amazed there wasn't a thread on here about that, it was an astonishing bit of programming.

This isn’t about the horrific nature of his crimes, it’s about the collective guilt and embarrassment of an entire nature who didn’t see what was right under their noses until it was too late.

All the more reason to make it then.

eddiebaby
Full Member
The BBC people I knew back in the 80s/90s certainly knew he was a bad bloke.

So you knew as well and did nothing?

I'm being hyperbolic, but it seems everyone from Eddie here all the way up to the PM knew

I think that really does warrant some further public discourse

Some folk need to get a grip pleny of actors have played Hitler he was a bit of a wrong un too.

But the films haven't been made by the AfD or NDP. And if they had the portrayal of Hitler and his acts would have been suspect, as is anything made by the BBC on Saville.

That is the point made by jekkyl and I agree with him. The role of the BBC will not be accurately portayed, the objective is a whitewash that will minimise the BBC's role.

Surely a prime role for Leeds born actor Laurence Fox?

I had no personal evidence just the word of one guy who knew first hand having worked for him as a JS roadshow DJ and another guy who had been in the beeb since the late 70s and had heard too many stories for them all to be false. The other folk I spoke to all had said they were warned about him by coworkers when they joined. The general opinion was that Savile was too big for the BBC to go against. They certainly feared that they would never work again if they spoke out.

For the record, i had no idea.

I therefore have no guilt as wasn't complicit in his actions your honour

Upon reading the article (I'm a wild one, me)... "The Reckoning will be written by Neil McKay" - not "The BBC".
Mentioned therein "the BBC missed opportunities to stop "monstrous" abuse". this being on The BBC's website, if you get my drift (some won't, that much is obvious).
Also "BBC drama controller Piers Wenger said the new drama did "not intend to sensationalise these crimes" but "to give voice to his victims"

So, as far as the OP's post goes then , the only real question is who will play Jim.

I thought maybe Steve Coogan? Is he too old though and too much history of a comedic actor. I bet he could nail the voice.

Maybe it should played as a horror, with Savile learing into cam as to a little girl in some swirly lsd inspired nightmare vision:
'Now then, now then, howz about that then!?' slurping his words.

Odd use of "slurping", but yeah. Like it

Simon Pegg?

Louis Theroux did a very interesting revisit of his Saville documentary, no whitewashing there.

pondo
Full Member

Louis Theroux did a very interesting revisit of his Saville documentary, no whitewashing there.

Very good programme, my god the interview with the poor lady who had been seriously abused was tough watching. 🙁

Louis Theroux

Now there's a reference, not. 🙂

The Series Producer quickly reassured me. He explained about Louis’ more recent work around dementia, transgender children and subjects that involve complex human dilemmas. He also said that although final editorial control would rest with the BBC, The Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust (BIRT) would be able to veto anything if we had a valid concern regarding the integrity of the Trust or privacy of an individual.

from

https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/integrity-and-sensitivity

You see and hear what the BBC wnats you to see and hear.

What?

You see and hear what the BBC wnats you to see and hear.

That a commissioning editor gets the final say on what makes the cut is about as surprising as cornflakes.

And FFS, it's not even being made by the BBC, ITV are making it!

"BBC One commissions new drama from award-winning team that will trace the life of Jimmy Savile
The BBC has commissioned the award winning team - Neil McKay and executive producer Jeff Pope (The Moorside, Appropriate Adult) - to make The Reckoning (w/t) produced by ITV Studios for BBC One."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2020/the-reckoning

I think it would be better as a musical.

singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bbc-to-make-jimmy-savile-drama/#post-11430774

is Jimmy Savile bikes cockney rhyming slang for Gravel bikes?

I say do it, as long as any victims are completely anonymised, and establishment coverups are included. If we can make top-selling 3 part dramas about British serial killers then why not this?

Agreed, I think what People need to remember is that you don't undo the past or learn from it by simply ignoring the bad parts (or individuals).

Surely better would be to make a true crime documentary about how he actually managed to get away with this for years.

I think what People need to remember is that you don’t undo the past or learn from it by simply ignoring the bad parts (or individuals).

Very much this. Possibly too soon for some of the survivors, but evil needs exposing, in the correct and appropriate way. Lots of people jumping to conclusions about how this will turn out. Whoever makes it will not be wanting the headlines the following day to say "farcical whitewash", will they?

A couple of relatives of mine worked at Stoke Mandeville during the time he was there. Both have subsequently said they were warned about him. I'm horrified it seemed to be such an open secret.

There are so many lessons to be learned from this it definitely should be produced. How well they do it and who gets exposed is another matter. Just think, it could become a box set: Driberg, Weinstein, Epstein, Francois.