The Most Influential Liar : Part 2

 After Selena, its footage of news reports of Savile finally getting his knighthood. Lord Butler : "Margaret Thatcher wasn't going to give up", and his name got onto her 'last list' for submission to the Queen. 

Savile was, according to Lynn Barber : "still sort of - buzzing" when he agreed to be interviewed by her again. 

"I went to his pokey little flat, near the BBC. I had decided that I must try and ask him if he likes little girls, but you know I couldn't work out how, and actually, he sort of gave it to me. on a plate because he said that getting the knighthood was a relief, and I said well why was it a relief and he said oh cos you know there's always been these nasty rumours, so then I was able yo say, you mean the rumours that you like little girls'

She reads from her magazine piece : "Still I was nervous when I told him : what people says is you like little girls ? He reacted with a flurry of funny voice - Jimmy Savile patter, which is what he does when he's getting his bearings. Ugh, now sure, now then now then. First of all, I happen to be in the pop business, which is teenagers, that's number one, so when I go anywhere, it's the young ones that come round me. Now what the tabloids don't realise is that the young girls in question don't jug around me because of me, but because I know the people, they love - the stars.

I, I thought he answered the question, well. And then I thought : Oh yes that explains it (not sure if Barber is reading this sentence, the screen has a Fix-It featuring Kylie doing the locomotion, but then she continues reading : 

"If they know it, why haven't they published it ? The Sun or The News Of The World would hardly refuse the chance of featuring a Jimmy Savile sex scandal. The fact that the tabloids have never come up with a scintilla of evidence against Jimmy Savile, is as near proof as you can ever get".

"And what was the reaction to your article when it was published ?". 

"Ah well I was quite told off by quite a lot of readers saying : this wonderful man who does all this work for charity and is now a Knight, and then you dare to ask him if he likes little girls. People were offended by the question. There was a feeling, it was sort-of - cheeky".

Straight to Sylvia Nichol (Jimmy's friend).

"Never seen anyone do that much good. Simple as that". The camera lingers on her face for longer than it needs to, as if it's searching for something. 

Next : footage of Savile on This Is Your Life. At the same time, there's a voice-over that doesn't belong to what's on the screen. I recognised the voice of Anthony Clare the famous Psychiatrist who interviewed Savile for a radio programme. Savile tells him he's not constrained by anything and how the one thing he couldn't stand losing would be his 'freedom' : "I've got the freedom to do pretty well everything, now". 

From Santa Claus to Meirion Jones accompanied by sinister-music and Lynn Barber's voice-over :

"Insofar as my article - had any importance, it was the first time that this had actually been in print. You know, I sort of - launched that idea on the world, as it were". Jones places the magazine on a desk, taps the relevant page, and declares "This was key moment. When I read that interview that Lynn Barber had done,, I mean - she was, best interviewer in the business at that point, I just thought : 'ooo', suddenly she's mentioning these paedophile rumours. It's there in BLACK AND WHITE". (pause more music) It turns out of-course, that this was far more horrific than I could ever have imagined". 

We leave Jones there, with his magazine and an article that was "there in black and white" in 1990. He doesn't let on when exactly he first came across it (I'll come back to this later) and nobody asks him. Nobody in this film wants to know. Suddenly : it's fast forward to 2012, when Jones' story finally reached the public, and a seemingly-horrified media : Carole Malone on some show : "He groomed an entire nation", etc, etc.

Jones has his say : "From that moment on, it was open, I mean : what was the real story about Jimmy Savile". I assume he's referring to Barber's piece again ? Honestly folks, were it not for the damage this man has done, I might actually feel a bit sorry for him. There's something not right with this man. And I mean that most sincerely. 

But never mind him and his issues, worse is yet to come, because less than three minutes before the end of Part 1, the screen fills with the image of an old cassette tape and a voice introduces herself as a Police officer. No disclaimer appears on the screen to inform the viewer that the voices are those of actors. To all intents and purposes, this is a recording of a police interview that actually took place in 2009. Even I was temporally fooled. 

The bastards !

And they didn't tell the audience until well into Part 2. 

Part 2.

Opens in Loch Ness with Savile, an interviewer but no 'Nessie'. These filmmakers, sure love making films about non-existent 'monsters'. 

On Screen : 'WHEN JIMMY SAVILE'S CRIMES WERE EVENTUALLY UNCOVERED. THEY SHOCKED THE NATION.'

'BETWEEN 1955 AND 2009 HE COMMITTED HUNDREDS OF SEXUAL OFFENCES, MAINLY AGAINST CHILDREN'.

Interspersed with footage of Savile and his telescope at Loch Ness.

One minute in the star of the show : Meirion Jones reappears. This time his aunt's school is a "youth detention centre".

"My investigation into Jimmy Savile, began by chance. My aunt ran Duncroft, a youth detention centre. Savile arrives when I'm probably about 16. He kept turning up. I thought it was strange. (pause, music, Jones pinning stuff to a wall as per investigators do). In the 90's I became a journalist. At that point I was working at the BBC - radio news. I remember talking with other people, celebrity gossip, sometimes you heard 'Savile underage girls', I would say : 'where do you know that from' and I would try and see if that led anywhere. But when I tried to track them down, I could never find a witness or a victim. The trail went blank when you tried to follow that trail" (Jimmy Savile is at an establishment dinner).

"Back then I thought it was simple, I just had to get the evidence, to catch him. I didn't realise, the whole world around him, had to change, before the truth could come out.

ON screen  "Part 2 : Finding The Monster".

Footage of Broadmoor Hospital, which looks like the BBC documentary made in the 80's (to check).

BBC narrator : "Today's siren called for change. For the past seven months a task force has been setting up a stronger therapeutic regime. It's chairman is Jimmy Savile". 

The viewer is at no time, told WHY a 'task force' was needed at the hospital in the first place, and/or why Savile was part of it. Nothing about patient's being confined to their rooms at an early hour and having to slop-out as if they were in prison, because of the industrial action and the chaos that ensued back then. 

No, just Richard Ordish expressing how surprised he was back then. Next another clip of Savile talking about the invite to join  'nutters anonymous club'. Then on Parkinson and next Marjorie Wallace.

Marjorie Wallace was a journalist who wrote a book called The Silent Twins and about two girls who were sent to Broadmoor for arson. 

"The twins wanted me to be their voice. I would go 6,7, 8 times a year to visit them. Jimmy Savile, I met only once". He'd suddenly appeared in the canteen and he jumped onto a table in front of her and the girls, according to her saying : "I'll have you first (pointing at one twin) I'll have you, second" (pointing at the other). Nobody asks Ms Wallace what she thought he might have meant at the time, so it's a mystery. 

Clip of Savile on TV being grilled by a group of teenagers and a very young Krishnan Guru-Murthy. Then back to Wallace who tells us that despite writing her concerns about the effect Savile might be having on vulnerable people  to the health minister at the time, she got nowhere. "I remember I didn't really get anywhere. He was too important. It had been decided ...".

Screen : BY 1990 JIMMY SAVILE HAS CHARITABLE RELATIONSHIPS with over 50 hospitals and children's homes across Britain.

A boy in bed laughing and chatting with Savile about a picture he's drawn of him. 

Screen : IT IS IN THESE INSTITUTIONS THAT HE FOUND MANY OF HIS VICTIMS.

Savile on Parkinson.

A Forensic Psychotherapist talks about people who commit crimes over a huge period of time, without getting caught, interspersed with Savile on Top Of The Pops and Parkinson : "He's not what you think you know. The forces of darkness are at work there". 

NEXT UP : Savile on Andrew Neil's talk show : "Is This Your Life"(1995)  asks him : "What has prompted you to devote so much time to charity ?".

"Just cos I like it. I don't really need to justify why I like it".

Neil : "Jimmy Savile was a huge figure but he was also an enigma. I had been with The Economist for ten years. I made documentaries for the BBC. I was editor of The Sunday Times Of London for eleven years. He'd never been interviewed by someone like me. I've suspected there was something amiss. 

"We had found nobody who'd done a kiss-and-tell, and I should stress THAT THE PEOPLE DOING THE RESEARCH WERE HARD-BITTEN TABLOID JOURNALISTS. He said he had all these women chasing him. He'd all these girlfriends, but our research team couldn't find a single woman, girl, teenager he'd dated. NOT ONE."

No one asks Neil any questions in response to this, so here's mine :

1) Mr Neil, what do you mean when you say : we had found nobody ... ? Are you referring to your journalists at the Times Of London, the Economist, etec etc ? And if you aren't why aren't you ? Why mention tabloid journalists ? Didn't you have your own ?

2) I'm confused ? You do say 'our research team' ? Is that because this is a Netflix film ? Are you venturing to speak on behalf of the whole of the British Press ? 

Personally Mr Neil, I'd say Lynn Barber made a much clearer and useful contribution to my understanding of the matter. 

I'm not finished yet folks. 

To be continued !