OK, let's get this done. Next week the BBC* are finally going to Broadcast what they describe as a "factual drama" on the life of Sir Jimmy Savile called : "The Reckoning". Apparently the writer started writing it in 2013 or 14, I forget, filming completed in 2022, but transmission was delayed for various reasons, none of which interest me.
What does very much interest me is this :
I haven't been able to find a full cast list for TR, but apparently this is Steve Coogan (Jimmy Savile) and Gemma Jones (Agnes his mother).
His mother - whom millions of people knew as 'The Duchess' J.S's pet name for her back then and who had not just one child, but seven*. Those children had children themselves, as did JS's siblings and many of these people are still alive and apparently, not ONE of them was contacted by ITV, save an email that ended thus :
I had to make the image extra large so you could read it.
Read it and try to imagine yourself in the position of the recipient of this - someone who knew SJS all their life, ran marathons with him, appeared beside him in many press photographs, someone who loved him and - more importantly, someone who still loves him, whose voice has been silenced as have all but one or two of JS's friends and family. Those who knew him best, not some hack, nonentity, who latched onto the man whilst he was alive, hero-worshipped him (he was desperate to get an invite to the funeral), only to jump on the first bandwagon that came along a year later, writing a book full of the nonsense peddled by the media posthumously, now being regurgitated in this factual drama.
Here's one of my reviews of Mr Dan Davies' work.
https://rabbitaway.blogspot.com/2014/07/just-plain-shite.html
But back to the factual drama : as mentioned earlier, I don't have a complete cast list for TR. I suspect IMDB has this wrong - who the hell are any of these people after Steve Coogan ?
The next lot include one BBC bod, so maybe there's mileage in this (I doubt it).
'BBC worker' ? Really ?
I'm going with the wiki effort for the time being. Ray Teret and Bill Cotton is in it, so that might take care of the factual bit. These men did exist after all.
But, what the hell is this ? Is this alleged incident really featured ?
My source for these photos, is an article published two years ago, which - despite getting the BBC and ITV (as the makers of TR) mixed up, provide a useful link to the alleged source of the scenes depicted : a newspaper article from 2016. The contents of which (per the alleged attacks on two teenage girls) sound about as believable as Carl Beech's wasps !
Here's both of them, so you can read it yourselves. It sounds like lies to me. Has ITV really used this in TR ? Is this the standard of their research ?
http://www.scoopyweb.com/2021/11/steve-coogans-eerie-transformation-into.html
The photos though !
She looks nothing like The Duchess. Even I can see that.
No sign of any photos of Gemma Jones in a more recent article, but the few commentators' comments did make me smile.
Toddling off for some tea now. I'm not finished yet !
Jimmy Savile had a family who still love him. I dedicate this to them !
Addendum 4/10/23
*Many thanks to the anonymous commentator who, quite rightly, corrected me. I have my first sentence to read that the BBC are broadcasting this miniseries, not ITV.
How strange :The BBC commissions ITV to make a programme so that they can broadcast it ? Only in this day and age folks. Only in this one ! I'd laugh, but there's nothing funny about it.
How appropriate are the words SJS gave to Mensa Magazine in 1992.
"Corruption spreads. If the boss is corrupt then the deputy boss is corrupt. And so is the deputy's deputy and so on and so forth, right down as far as it can possibly reach. If one poses the question, 'Will you ever eradicate corruption', the answer is 'No'. Because the resolution of the vast majority of things in the world is attempted by debate. But very few bring into the frame the thing called human nature. CORRUPTION IN ALL IT's FORMS, IS THE BEDEVILMENT OF THE WORLD (My emphasis) .
https://rabbitaway.blogspot.com/2014/06/business-as-usual.html
Another addendum 05/10/23 :
*Correction from first draft : Agnes Savile had seven children, not eleven.
