Long time no blog folks ! Well, I just haven't had much inclination to be honest, what with all the other drama's going on this year. But, I couldn't resist this story, if - for no other reason, than it might bring a few more people into the : question everything fold. Just one would do !
Anyway, let's get on ! Earlier today came this tweet from my friend and co-Savile-not-so surer : Moor Larkin. Naturally, my paws sprang into action. I had to know more.
Claims made in connection with that wonderful TV Series :This Is Your Life ? This demanded some attention. I got to work, straight away !
First off : What does Wiki say ?
Next click on the reference link
OK Wiki - I'm with you so far. Let's take a look at that article then ! If you can find it that is. This is all I could find to begin with. Not the primary source but replicated in something called The Free Library, whatever that is
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/ARTHUR+MULLARD+WAS+THE+COCKNEY+COMIC+MILLIONS+LOVED+...AND+A+MONSTER...-a061162095
But where's the bit about This is Your Life, wiki ? It's not in that article ?
Fortunately for you dear reader, I like to see first hand stuff, so a-burrowing I went. I paid a few quid and I found stuff you won't find unless you do ! Here is the full - This is your Life story. Excuse the pun from the bun !!! Of course, I include the top of the page for the date etc. It's the Sunday Mirror May 12 1996.
Arf' a minute ! Is that someone challenging the claims, in one and the same article ? What sort of journalism is this ? Certainly not the sort, we in Savile-land are used to ! Goodness gracious, give that journalist an award if she's still around. And the brother, bless him !
A 'bust-up with Barbara a couple of years before he died ...' and leaving his money to charity ! Kinda makes sense, doesn't it ? Especially, when you read that that part of the story was indeed true ! No, I haven't paid to see the will and I'm not going to. I just wanted to share all this with you, dear readers.
Believe NOTHING. Check your sources. Then check them again. If something is not readily available, tell yourself :
"Arthur minute - Is this true ?"
Oh, I almost forgot my good friend's valuable input into the story ! Maybe hold on another arf-a-minute before handing over that journalism award !
Eamon Andrews died in 1987. I double-checked !!!
Addendum added within the hour of first publishing
We don't know to which year/series of This Is Your Life, the claimant's refer to. It may well have been hosted by Eamon Andrews. Silly mistake I thought I must correct as soon as. Doesn't detract from the purpose of the blog-post though.
Always check - especially when it's you that might be wrong !
Lovely, really lovely to see you blogging again. Forensic analysis at its best. In your words..... Onwards!!!
ReplyDeleteThank You Amanda ! Except for the Eamon Andrews red herring, it was pretty much plain sailing to write !!!
DeleteThese sort of stories have multiple victims don't they.
ReplyDeleteEammon Andrews "covered up" child abuse
BBC indirectly "covered up" child abuse
and so it continues. Quite vile.
Read the account by the daughter and it screams "Therapy Fantasy" to me: "I was in the kitchen when I heard a sort of thud on the wooden table," she says. "I turned round and there was what I took to be a long-stemmed mushroom on it, although it seemed to be alive."
Interesting to see where there is corroboration with her brother though, ""Dad and I had a lot in common," remembers Barbara. "We both liked poetry and art"
The story demonstrates how deep the roots of this whole phenomenon are.
Just noticed as well that the piece about Mullard's will refer to his son and daughter...... not sons.....
ReplyDeleteImagine that was put out to the press by the two disappointed $iblings.....
...... Or nephew & nieces
DeleteI double checked your double check. Using an academic database - ProQuest - which holds full text copies of, among other things, the Sunday Mirror of 1996, I found both articles. The article copied on the FreeLibrary (which is just a reprint site) was published on 12.5.1996, as was the article you found. Both pieces were published in the same issue of the paper, unusual but not unique in the rough and tumble of old Fleet Street.
ReplyDeleteEveryone may have honestly been telling their version of the truth, or not, it is impossible to tell from just those two stories. But Wikipedia gives a fair reflection of one secondary source. Anyone can update Wikipedia by using the other one, so long as they stick by Wikipedia’s rules (citing the source and so on).
Not sure what you mean by 'their version of the truth'. All I went looking for was the article referenced by Wiki. One citation number = one article as far as I'm concerned. perhaps you'd like to update wiki yourself ?
DeleteGG on reflection I think I may have been a tad hard on Wikipedia and a tad arrogant in my response to your perfectly reasonable comment (20th November). My gripe - with anyone - the media, blogs anything accessible for people to read online, has always been their scant regard for supplying the whole story, as it were. If someone, anyone, cites a newspaper article, I want to see that article myself. I have great respect for Wiki and of course, it can be updated and amended, as you say.
DeleteSo I thank you for your earlier comment, I have learned something !
Regards R
Nice research and good to see you back in action. I have a slight personal interest in that my accent has been likened to Arthur's although I do not share his interest in art and poetry. I for one hate Wikipedia. It is (possibly) useful if you need to know the weight of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in metric tons or how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall but for anything important it is worse than useless. (What does it say about Jimmy Savile?)
ReplyDeleteYours and Moor's blogs are oases of sanity.
DeleteFascinating blog post. I had been following your blog but stopped checking for new posts after I thought you'd stopped. Great to see you're back in the saddle!
ReplyDeleteMaybe you've seen this already, but there's another "documentary" out about Jimmy Savile, this time on the discovery+ channel. "Experts in body language, linguistics and forensic psychology examine how one of the biggest stars in British television and showbusiness got away with decades of sexual abuse." Covered by the Mirror in an article titled "Jimmy Savile's horrifying guilt exposed by his 'eating a banana' in chilling interview".
https://www.discoveryplus.co.uk/show/faking-it-jimmy-savile
https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/jimmy-saviles-horrifying-guilt-exposed-23038379
I've recently been watching Lucy Worsley's documentaries on historical "fibs". Showing how myths took root and became entrenched, living on to this day, even before the mass media and internet, they don't make me optimistic about the prospects of Jimmy Savile's reputation ever being salvaged. But I hope I'm wrong.
Research like yours is so important, and is what makes people like me who originally believed the allegations ask questions and see sense, so I hope you keep on blogging!
Historical fibs. Interesting that you say that because it is a subject that has interested me over the past four years or so. I started off with the Spanish Civil War, then Voltaire and all over the place since. I concluded that it all has to be written again. I found American scholar Matthew Raphael Johnson and he has already done quite a bit of this. He is coming to it from a background in philosophy and political theory while I see it through the lens of collective fantasy, but he comes to similar conclusions al the same.
DeleteThe Press and a new documentary 'Faking It: Jimmy Savile' claim SJS was guilty because during an interview he was 'eating a banana'!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/jimmy-saviles-horrifying-guilt-exposed-23038379
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8969527/Eating-banana-signposted-Jimmy-Saviles-guilt.html
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13249399/jimmy-savile-uses-banana-prop-video/
How the Daily Mirror describe today's supporters of Sir Jimmy Savile nearly 10 years after his passing: "These people seem to think that because Savile never had the chance to refute the claims made against him that he’s innocent."
ReplyDeletePrecisely.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/twisted-fans-still-leave-flowers-22892831
Once again, thankyou for speaking up for my father. Your work gives me the power to do the same and pull me out of a very dark place. X
ReplyDelete