In Plain Sight: The Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile

Product Information

For those who do not know, Jimmy Savile was a pioneering DJ, Sportsman and philanthropist. He also sexually abused over 450 people, male and female ranging from the ages 5 to 75 from the late 60’s to 2009 (he died in 2011). Yet he was seen as Britain’s national treasure, with even Prince Charles as a close confidante. Due to his connections in high places he was able to get away with everything. When there was a problem his ‘friends’ would deal with it quietly.

Dan Davies: ‘I think he knew it would all come out. I think in a way he was trying to groom me to write a very positive biography about him.' Photograph: Antonio Olmos for the Observer Eventually, in 2004, the editor of the magazine I was working on decided that I should put my theories to the test. That first interview in Leeds lasted a whole day, and marked the start of the second phase of my relationship with Jimmy Savile – a journey through the kaleidoscopic landscape of his life, or the version of it that he wanted to project. Amin, Meghna (28 October 2023). "Steve Coogan 'very pleased' when Jimmy Savile drama came to an end". In the years that followed, I began collecting books, newspaper and magazine articles, and interviews in old annuals. I claimed – only half in jest – that one day this “dossier” would reveal what a powerful, dangerous man Jimmy Savile really was. It sounded ludicrous at the time, but so too did the fact Savile was a trusted confidante of popes, princes and prime ministers. The role of court jester seems to have been Savile’s passport to the powerful. He played the part to Thatcher, the Prince of Wales (who released a statement about his “sadness” soon after Savile’s death), and to Cardinal George Basil Hume, leader of the English Catholic church from 1976 to 1999, who will successfully secure Savile a “Papal knighthood” from the Vatican in 1990 – the same year he becomes a knight of the British empire at the behest of Thatcher (overruling, it was subsequently revealed, civil service concern about his moral suitability). A London West End restaurant , late 1990sThe production was announced in October 2020, [20] and was criticised before filming was under way. Richard Morrison, writing in The Times, stated that, as it was commissioned by the BBC, it felt "less an act of contrition than of exploitation." [21] Pragya Argawal, writing in The Independent, stated: Although it's impossible to know whether or not she was suspicious of his criminal behaviour, it's been said that she was untrusting of his success. Yes. And then he died. I was just… I was really angry. I just felt like I'd wasted so much time. I felt so stupid. I just hadn't got far enough. I hadn't really got to the crux of who he was." In one example, Savile – who died last October aged 84 – describes an encounter with a young runaway from a remand home who was being hunted by the police.

I had only progressed a short distance when he died, and publishers initially showed little interest. They told me there was no appetite for a book on a faded celebrity. In some cases, they recoiled at the light I was shining into the dark corners of a life that had only recently been celebrated in a three-day, quasi-state funeral; a life described by one minister at his requiem mass as “ an epic of giving”. I carried on regardless, compelled by what those that knew him, and those who I would have never been able to speak to while he was alive, were now prepared to tell me. The key task now, Clare argued, was not revealing the repressed and the forgotten, but processing and understanding what was already known. The purpose of the new series, he said, was to cast light on the sources of each guest’s life and values. What motivates them? What sustains them through difficulties and crises? What fuels the notions of excellence that so many high- achievers appear to demonstrate? Above all, why do they do what they do? And how? Clare was right: there was something a lot more than chilling about Savile. Following Savile’s death in 2011, hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse were made against him, leading to multiple enquiries. While it was noted that Savile was no longer alive to present a defence, a 2013 report by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and the Metropolitan Police, entitled Giving Victims a Voice, was emphatic. Davies, Dan (9 October 2023). " 'Why was I so obsessed with him?': my seven years in search of Jimmy Savile's secrets". The Guardian . Retrieved 19 October 2023.If you could ask him anything, I say, what would it be? Davies thinks about it. "Did you feel remorse for what you did? Did it plague you when you were alone in your flat at night? Did you sleep easy?"