Howsa bout that then? Appalling, actually

With the trickle of allegations against the late Sir Jimmy Savile becoming a torrent, it brings to my mind the documentary When Louis Met Jimmy.  Then he was a local hero, not the figure of disgust that now shrouds his legacy.  At one point, Louis Theroux questioned him on his famous statement, that despite his work on Jim’ll Fix It, he hated children.  To this, Savile said that were he ever to deviate from this expression, the tabloid newspapers would hound him as a pervert.  Theroux, playing the ingénue, replied “So, you don’t hate children?”  Savile was too savvy though. “No, I hate them.”

With molestation (and even rape) charges so widespread and thus undeniable that even his family have acknowledged them by removing his cemetery headstone, this moment in the documentary takes on a new light.  Far from defending himself from a rapacious press, it was a deliberate line to insulate him from anyone coming forward about what they knew, for he knew he had done wrong.  He has ruined many a televisual moment with his paedophilia now known, because he could not keep his perversion in check.  He was the first ever presenter of Top of the Pops and Jim’ll Fix It was such a staple of British life but will now get as much airtime on mainstream TV as Triumph of the Will.  His charitable foundation is even considering dropping his name.  

Moreover, that so many unconnected people have come forward suggests it was a few individual’s failure of nerve to come out before but systemic cover-up – that if they suffered they were to suck it up because the elites could do what they wanted.  The quadrillogy of Red Riding is seen as sensationalist in its tales of official conspiracy but with the Hillsborough scandal and now this, evil could run amok in the corrupt old days.  The Daily Telegraph's obituary concluded that "he was simply an odd chap", which today seems a colossal understatement.  In retrospect, Savile was right in what he said for he did hate children.