Plan B Forum

TV star Jimmy Savile charmed a nation with his eccentricity and philanthropy. But sexual abuse allegations expose a shocking unseen side of his persona.



Watched this yesterday, sad and shocking.

Goodness gracious! As it 'appens, guys and gals, how's about that, then?

Yes, watched it a few days ago. Of the new crop of UK DJs in the sixties I always disliked Savile because I thought his persona was very much an adopted one unlike most of the other who were probably mostly WYSIWYG. But of course like just about everybody else who saw him only on TV I had no idea of his real nature.

During the program we met some of the people who were raped or at least assaulted by Savile and the overwhelming feeling was - what was the point of complaining? Who are the police going to believe - me, a little schoolgirl or a working secretary or struggling model, or one of the BBC's icons whom 'everybody loves'? Currently the police think Savile was involved with 500 or more victims over 40 years or so but the true figure will probably never be known. Many are probably dead and there are believable stories that during his ostensibly charitable career - he was for years a one-day-a-week porter at Leeds Hospital - that he also abused corpses in the morgue.

We've moved on a bit from those days - see Placido Domingo, Kevin Spacey et al - but probably still not enough.

Sometimes a cigar isn't just a cigar