Comedian and actor Steve Coogan is to play the disgraced late TV personality Jimmy Savile in a new BBC One drama.
The Reckoning, a mini-series, will tell the story of the presenter's rise and the sexual abuse scandal that emerged after his death.
The BBC said the team behind the drama had worked closely with those impacted by Savile to ensure their stories were told with "sensitivity and respect".
Coogan said he had not taken the decision to play Savile "lightly".
He said: "To play Jimmy Savile was not a decision I took lightly. Neil McKay has written an intelligent script tackling sensitively an horrific story which - however harrowing - needs to be told."
"An intelligent script" ? Well OK Mr Coogan, your audience will be the judge of that. In the meantime, I have a few things to say to you - and the any other entertainers who might consider playing the late Jimmy Savile in a fictional drama.
My first piece of advice would be quite simply, DON'T ! Well, not just yet that is ! Wait until someone does the research this sensitive writer obviously has not. I say that because of Coogan's use of the word "horrific". I hardly think that this drama will be a balanced affair, given what I know already.
Indeed, as I write this, the latest press offering on the subject has an interview of of one 'victim' embedded in itself. I had to watch a bit more in order to ascertain who this woman was. And it's the woman who appeared on Top Of The Pops in 1976 who may or may not have been inappropriately touched by Savile. Was she ? I have no idea ?
Now look ! With the best will in the world - How would this woman's story hold-up in a court of law ? If it got past a decent Police officer's initial inquiries that is ? It wouldn't, I hope ! Certainly not if she'd done a Carl Beech and included a few 'VIP's' in her claim. Apologies reader, I am trying to be as fair and as kind as I can, but that conviction of one of Savile's accusers in a court of law, for me, conclusively demonstrates the dangers of accepting any accusation of this nature, about anyone. And I'm not alone in being sickened by the rank hypocrisy shown by everyone : the police, the press, the media, the courts - everyone, in their deliberate failure to apply the same presumption of innocence automatically applied to Beech's victims, to others less influential than their powerful/influential selves.
If only he'd stuck to Jimmy !
One could almost have some sympathy for Wiltshire Police hailing Beech's claims as "credible and true". Their bosses were told to 'believe' all 'victims' of sex abuse, no matter how ridiculous those A(chieving) B(est) E(vidence) looked to another audience in a Newcastle court room in 2019.
The policy of believing any old crap about anyone had had its cards marked by a Judge call Henriques, whose cautions in regard to applying the presumption of innocence, held my interest for as long as it took to work out that even his concept of Justice was selective. Automatically believe no-one and stop with the 'victim' already, use the word 'complainant' ! Hurrah, said everyone, cheers all round, until some of us realised that his words made not one jot of difference - the : 'guilty until proved innocent' party, continued on its merry way, and now they're writing television drama's about someone who's 'dead so he can't sue'.
What else is there to say to the likes of Steve Coogan, that doesn't involve a few course swear words ?
Nothing !
vvvv
