THE RECKONING | The Horror of Jimmy Savile 

I remember a story by a professional wrestler named Adrian Street, Saville did a bit of pro wrestling in the early 70s as in being a celebrity in wrestling. Street heard of a few rumours about Saville so he roughed him up for real in the ring making Saville scream in pain. Adrian in an interview a few years back was asked did he “know” about how bad Saville really was and he said “no, they were just rumours everyone heard these rumours but nobody really knew, if I’d known how bad he really was I’d have killed him in the ring and made it look like and accident”.

Honestly well done to Coogan. This was a insanely risky opportunity, if done wrong it would be disrespectful and a mockery to the story and its victims. But Steve Coogan Played the monster so well and showed that he was a great actor, outside of comedy. Respect to him

My aunt worked at a club he used to run, she didn't know about the abuse but said he was a horrible person, terrible boss, used to sack employees on the spot, she didn't have a kind word for him. It's genuinely frightening that some of the countries most powerful people considered him a close friend, what does that say about them? Sometimes I think we are ruled by monsters.

I honestly felt sick watching The Reckoning. Steve Coogan took a huge risk doing this, but he did an incredible job of painting Savile as the monster that he was

The fact is that the BBC is going to cash in on it is unpalatable. The BBC knows more about what he was doing while he was doing it.

When Saville was at the height of his fame, the days of Jim'll fix it etc, I was around 8 years old. I always found him an extremely unsettling TV presence and could never understand why adults around me, my parents included, considered him such a benign celebrity. Years later when I was at university I picked up the book of short stories Maribou Stork Nightmares by Irivine Welsh, author of Trainspotting, which contains a short story about a BBC disc jockey from Leeds who is a pornography addict and does charity work in a local hospital where he visits the morgue and has sex with the deceased. This was written in 1990. I believe, if I remember correctly, the character in the book has the initials J.S... Irvine Welsh met Saville a few times at various political events, so I believe he knew something that he could only try to communicate through fiction, less he get sued.

He looks incredibly creepy. I can’t imagine why people didn’t run away when they saw him.

Steve Coogan is an absolute master of his craft. His portrayal downright eerie.

Johnny Rotten was on to him, he warned about Jimmy Savile on numerous occasions but they ignored him and he was even banned by the BBC for talking bad aboud Savile. Hope they apologized to Johnny for that.

This was a fantastic program in the sense that it made me feel nauseous. Coogan showing he's a far better actor than most give him credit for.

Almost 30 years ago my then GF who had lived near Stoke Mandeville Hospital told me that JS was a necrophile & i said 'oh come off it! he's fucking creepy but theres no way he could get away with that, how on earth is he gonna be given access to a morgue?'. I couldn't have been more wrong.

The balls of the BBC producing this is outrageous.

Coogan is absolutely brilliant, he's so insanely creepy and odious throughout, while also flashing moments of charm

I am old enough to remember his first Top of the Pops and always thought he was a great guy. I was a young lad of the 1960s with flower power and all the rest of it. When the story broke in the press I felt shocked and a fool. I looked at the show and was very impressed with Mr Coogan acting he should get an award.

Jimmy Savile is a prime example of how help is not always out there.

Saville might be dead but there are plenty of his enablers still alive. One of the more prominent one is now a king, I believe.

Bravo too Coogan, despite the fact he's way more handsome than Saville was. Saville looked like a circus freak.

I never sunderstood this appeal. He always struck me as an insidious, insincere man. He exuded vile creepiness. How come so few people could see it?

British Epstein

Johnny Rotten was right YEARS AGO! And he was called a liar! Hopefully Saville's victims will find peace somehow

Steve Coogan is one of the most underated actors..he was brilliant as Stan Laurel n im sure he will nail this role

Steve did a brilliant job, I believe this was done for the victims, made not to hide away and to deal with this subject. Just in case anyone is curious, the whole of the British public did not protect Savile, but I do think that had the police interview been conducted at the police station and the media had commented on it, then it would have triggered the end then. But it didn't and those 'important' people who said nothing, are the ones to blame for all of this. All I would add is thank goodness my letter to Jim'll Fix It was never acknowledged.

Steve Coogan did a good job on this. Not just the voice, as he is a talented impressionist. But also certain mannerisms and facial expressions. There are those who criticise Coogan for portraying Jimmy Savile. But then, did they have the same misgivings over James Bolam for his portrayal of Harold Shipman? Or Maxine Peak's portrayal of Myra Hyndley. Or indeed David Suchet playing Robert Maxwell?

About 5 years ago, before I became a professional archivist, I volunteered in a local authority archive. I was given a small personal collection to catalogue which included a local girls' school magazine from the 70s, I think. Inside, I found an interview with Savile. He was in town for some kind of show/event so two schoolgirls visited him to ask for an interview, and he happily invited them into his dressing room. Here, he told them he "likes anything with a shape like you" and that he "only likes girls who breathe; you couldn't get them otherwise". These girls were about 14/15. Not at all what I expected from an otherwise innocuous collection and I'm still shocked that this was really printed in a school magazine. I'm only in my 20s so I hadn't really heard of this man before he died and wasn't aware of just how brazenly disgusting he was. Absolutely vile.

Good on you for making this a fundraiser for survivors of abuse. That's more than the BBC did 😡

My grandmother hated him She always used to tell me when i was a kid that he was creepy and something is wrong with him. There was a 1 time tv show dedicated to Savile in the 80s/90s where Jim Bowen said "he likes young girls... Well, you know all above board and that".

No one listened too Johnny Rotten

I can understand why Coogan struggled with acting in this. Coogan is one of the most unappreciated actors in the modern age. He always makes the characters convincing. Well done to him. A pox on JS.

An actor playing Jimmy Savile is like an actor playing Adolf Hitler - it looks offensive but has to be done for the purposes of educating people through dramatisation.

I have a huge amount of respect for Coogan for playing this role. He deserves an award for it.

When I was a kid I wrote in and was turned down by two separate shows: "Jim'll Fix It" and "Rolf's Cartoon Club".....Make of that what you will.

As an American I was never familiar with Jimmy until after he passed. His story is quite disturbing, scary and sad. It’s a shame that we protect our celebrities, we need to hold them responsible for their disgusting actions. While he was finally outed it’s a shame that it was only after his death.

Much much Respect for Steve Coogan. Holy cow, this man has an incredible range of acting roles and personalities he portraits. Definitely one of my absolute most favorite european actors of our times. 😊👏

It's like the latest series of Partridge, gone a bit dark. I kept chuckling at Coogans awseome Savile impersonation, then he'd corner a kid in a cupboard, and I'd remember

I wouldn't be surprised if the actor needed therapy after playing him. How come the royals never had to accout for supporting him? Props to you for not censoring your words!

Stop concentrating on Saville and uncover all of the people who knew and hid this.

Coogan is a genuine living legend, and history will prove that. We’re lucky to have him

I'm not usually phased by TV, movies etc. But when I sat down to watch this, I ended up getting through around 30 minutes of the first episode before having to turn it off and watch something else. As a guy with trauma from his childhood (which I won't get into) anything to do with Saville gets right under my skin. Similar situation with the Lois Theroux documentary with Saville in it. Couldn't finish watching because the man disturbs me that much. To everyone. Please speak out aganst your abuser if you can. Not even publicly, but to a friend or family member who you trust. I know it's terrifying, especially if your abuser is someone in a position of power but you're almost definitely not alone and you might even encouraged more survivors to come forward. P.s even as a 6 year old, I could tell Saville was a wrongun, what kind of meth were the people of Britain smoking in the 80s?

Ah yes. Russel Brands personal hero and inspiration. Just a lovely, lovely man according Russ.

The audacity of the BBC to not only employ and cover up for that man for decades but then further profit off his notoriety via dramatisation is incredible. The organisation is disturbing in its determination to control narratives. A dramatisation of Savilles crimes barely scratches the surface of the disservice done by the organisation itself.

As a young kid in the 70’s and early 80’s Saville always creeped me out at a primitive level when he sat kids on his lap or touched them… like a warning a rabbit gets from instinct when around a fox!!

God I'm I glad you've done a nightmare fuel on this one because it wholeheartedly earns that title, no doubt. Made my skin crawl. Coogan did a fantastic portrayal in my opinion.

As an American, I knew the broad strokes of the evil this man wrought (I'd only heard of him as a result of these terrible crimes). This video answered a lot of questions I didn't know I had about him. Thanx!

He often wore track suits so he could expose himself and put it away again quickly.

I honestly cannot tell how nobody figured out what he was by just looking at him, he looked like a stereotypical SO. Who thought letting a guy with a creepy grin, messy unwashed hair and unzipped tracksuits showing off his hairy chest was a good person to be a kids show host?

Coogan is doing a wonderful brave thing, it's time lights were shone on those dark areas of human predators. To help protect the next generations from these predators. Well done Mr Coogan and thank you

Steve Coogan’s performance was breathtakingly accurate. He is a brilliant actor. If it wasn’t such a difficult subject, I’m sure he would win every award going.

I watched this, episode by chilling episode, and each time, afterwards, I had to stop and go do something else to distract and recharge myself emotionally, because this is a deeply moving brave drama. Yes Coogan is masterful and brave in the lead role, but so are the rest of the cast and especially the real victims who took part. This will stay with you. On a personal note, this is the first time I’ve come this close to feeling I might have understood his motives and methods. A man without empathy or love, without conscience, civility or regrets, he only had ambition and lust, for power, prestige, and self gratification. He ensnared powerful people with his practiced charms, he used them, they used him, and he used the powerless, then he absolved himself of his secret sins through his faith, balancing his vile acts with his public good deeds and celebrity adoration. He wasn’t knowingly protected in his evil, there wasn’t any powerful ring of well organised complicity in it, he was just a very focussed, charming, conniving little man, with a heart black enough to abuse the trust and goodness in others, because he could. His increasingly vile acts were done purely for that reason, because he could. That’s it. A tough watch, but we must try to dissect and understand this to end this. Basically, surely, nothing and nobody should ever have absolute power over anyone else, especially in secret, because inside of all of us lurks that urge to be able to do anything we want, evil just depends on what that is when someone can. Never again.

Not an easy watch but full kudos to the real life victims for having such courage and strength to convey their inner feelings. Their lives have been changed forever.

Keys to the morgue...shielded by the royals as well😮

Coogan deserves all the praise he’s gotten and more. Absolute powerhouse performance

The irony that this is a bbc drama...the very organisation that facilitated this monster in the first place.

As a child I remember asking my parents who this creepy man was.....Rolf also, seemed pretty obvious to me and I was about 7 years of age.

So saville worked for the BBC, they covered for him at the time making them just as bad and now make money out of a drama about him. Can they stoop any lower.

It bugs me to no end that the public and government were in such an uproar about video nasties and yet this monstrosity, the worst kept secret in British show business, was allowed to do as he pleased.

He really was the anti-mr. Rogers.

Sadly, not only will this happen again, it's happening now. There are people hiding behind a mask of respectability who are monsters. Sadder still, like Savile, they will get away with it as well. Savile's fascination with the dead made me wonder if he wasn't above making a few corpses of his own. It wouldn't surprise me at all. In fact, there has been speculation that he was in a killing partnership with Peter Sutcliffe. They were friends after all. Probably just a coincidence though. I guess we'll never know the full truth about Uncle Jimmy. Excellent series and a great video.

I thought it was ironic that the 4 part docu-series was from the BBC, considering that it was this institution that covered for him and silenced the poor victims.

Steve Coogan!what an actor…..terrified me as the gruesome Saville. Excellent acting by all the cast. Ifeel for the victims. Especially young Kevin…..so tragic.

It is staggering and worrying that people actually spent 50 years totally unaware that this man was nothing but a pervy creep. My mam and dad said they couldn’t stand the site or sound of him, he was so obviously a wrongen. You look at a picture of this creep, the hair, the eyes, the smile… it is unbelievable no one clocked on sooner. Some people instinctively knew he was a creep, others thought he was a great guy. That’s terrifying.

This was a very powerful series and Coogan was marvellous in this role. He's not playing the fun villain, he's showing us the monster Savile was. I am so glad they used the voices of real victims. Shoutout also to the director(s) of photography, the lighting from beneath his face is so sinister. I just wish it had been made by someone other than the BBC, because they let themselves off very lightly. There is one scene with a female senior woman in the corporation who objects to Savile being hired, but otherwise that's it. They act like they didn't know what was happening. They did. I do think Savile got a thrill out of pushing the boundaries and almost daring people to accuse him, because he had the power to get away with it.

I'm American and only ever even heard about this guy after his death when the allegations went public but yeah holy shit. I don't understand the company policy of 'keep it out of the public' with that and how they treated him like he was somehow irreplaceable. Just a disgusting situation of people afraid to do the right thing on an institutional level out of fear of any of the repercussions affecting themselves. THAT part is something I'm familiar with. In fact we have a current Republican candidate for Speaker of the House right now who has a similar 'I didn't see nothin' scandal of his own related to the Jerry Sandusky incident here. We just saw it in House of Usher to poetic perfection; you have moments in life to do the right thing or the wrong thing and those small moments catalyze big ones down the road. Make sure if you ever find yourself in that situation that you're doing the right thing. Because you could be sparing a lot of pain and suffering down the road.

After watching the first episode of the Reckoning I woke up in the middle of the night imagined I saw Jimmy Saville climbing over my bed towards me. I was terrified. I’ve never had a response to a horror movie like that. Coogan was genuinely frightening.

Saville was evil but there was someone even more evil than him in this drama Maggie Thatcher she ruined more lives than Saville ever did

There are so many people just like this in power and positions of influence.

It so creepy to watch respect to Steve coogan

As a kid I saw Savile on top of the pops , I could never take to him or understand the attraction . I knew there was something odd about him , that was obvious, I considered him false . It concerns me how , considering who he worked for, that he got away with it and don't tell me the police were unaware . Sinister and twisted times.

Thank you for doing this piece & for the fundraiser. As a tv drama, The Reckoning gripped me from the start. Very brave of the victims to be included. Coogan's performance is off the chart. I was in bits by the end.

Produced by the BBC of which the BBC were accused of playing down/shielding him for years, also didn't show how close he was to prince Charles...alot of important details completely left out...especially from the BBC side of things

I saw the whole series and I must admit it was far more scary than any horror movie I ever have seen, and I have seen a lot of horror movies. It's too real and reality is so scary. Savile reminds me of guys I've met in real life.

I watched the final episode yesterday and its impressive that age did not distort Coogan's Saville impression which I first heard from Coogan in the later series of classic Spitting Image

They managed a race swap for Claire. Pointless and disrespectful.

The BBC who empowered him and turned a blind eye to him then make a show about it?

Brilliantly portrayed, but I could NOT finish watching it - I got as far as the 3rd but could not take any more. The depiction of what he did was bad enough - but the true horror is in the revelations of how enabled he was by the BBC and other institutions.

He was the Yorkshire Ripper along with Sutcliffe. One of the murders took place less than 100 meters from his apartment.

There were only a few instances of Alan Partridge coming through. But given Partridge was a radio DJ and TV presenter with massive ego problems and trying to cover his own inadequacies, one could argue Partridge is partly based on many DJs including Savile. And it's not due ot any lack of acting ability - watch Coogan as Stan Laurel. He appears a totally different person.

This was disturbing to watch. My parents wrote to Jimmy Savile when I was a little boy to appear on his show and in the early 80s I was chosen to appear on the show less than a week before it was to air I came off my bike and slid on my chin for a meter and had a hole in my chin that required 6 stitches and I was in the hospital because I looked like I had been beaten up in a fight I was an absolute mess and it was cancelled at the last minute by my parents who said it would be too stressful for a 5-year-old little me to travel to London to appear on the show. I didn't know about this until my parents told me when I was a lot older and looking back on this now I had a lucky escape as Savile liked little boys as well as girls. I've always said that I was lucky not to have appeared in his show and at the age of 5 I was platinum blonde. I remember vividly coming off my bike even to this day it was traumatic for me but what is more disturbing was what could have happened in the company of Savile sends a shiver down my spine even to this day.

Interesting how the BBC never showed his close relationship with king Charles in this dramatisation

My grandmother used to go to the dance halls in Leeds as a teenager, where sometimes the monster would be deejaying, the bouncers warned her and her friend, “watch out for that deejay, he likes young girls” and when he found out that they were 17, he said “you’ll be alright then, you’re too old for him. What makes him so terrifying is that almost everyone knew or at least had an inkling about what he was really doing, yet he got away with it until the end. My heart goes out to all the victims

Hats off to Steve Coogan for his bravery.

apparently Coogan's acting is incredible throughout and riveting.

I can honestly say the show taught me a lot and throughout the show I realised Jimmy Saville had no redeemable qualities he did not change even as an old man he still tried to prey on the weak but it’s a good reminder that there are people like this in the world and I hope none of us ever meet them 🙏🏽

Didn't he privately say he actually hated the idea of a marriage and being a dad? Didn't anyone see that as a red flag?

I grew up with Saville on TV - I never rated him, I found him annoying. I just viewed him as some gormless crazy guy with googley eyes, dressed in tin foil esq’ track suits. How he dressed alone and his hair would make anyone run away in fear let alone letting him get close enough to be predatory! I also couldn’t stand Timmy Mallet or the Krankies! All weirdos to avoid.

Genuinely one of the sickest, most evil men in history. I hope he's rotting away in hell.

Not a Coogan fan, but he’s immense in this role - creepy as hell and genuinely unsettling.

Brilliant performance from Steve Coogan. I can’t imagine he’ll ever take on a more difficult role. When I was a child I was always told that “children should be seen and not heard”. Unfortunately this would have been a typical quote from predators like Savile. So much for the “good old days”.

it is shocking how he got away with so much for so long. Wishing peace to the victims and a reckoning for the enablers who did nothing to prevent or stop

Wow! Steve Coogan is a great actor. I wish that PBS could air this here in US. This is very important that Mystery Masterpiece Theater should be airing this. We all need to learn lessons from this cold and cruel world. People can be very horrible to the human race and the world isn't safe.

Coogan is a remarkable actor with this depiction of that beast Savile….it sent chills up my spine in some of the scenes with his uncanny resemblance too!

They removed his gravestone and roses, leaving no bush and a little hole... It's what he would have wanted.

Gary Glitter; Rolf Harris and Jimmy Savile walk into a Irish bar and the bar man says: not yewtree again”. 😂😂

As an American that lived in the UK in the early 80's, I remember seeing him on TV and thinking something was off with this guy, but being 12 years old at the time, I couldn't place what was off, but something wasn't right. Not too many things jolt me these days, but after watching this mini-series, I lost sleep. Hearing about it is one thing, seeing the situations puts a whole new perspective on the abhorrent deeds done by this monster.

9:52 this is a common belief of true Satanists, they beleieve they must be somewhat open about their evil, that it intensifies the power and lessens the blame.

I was a teenager in the seventies. I loved Top of the Pops but I was always disappointed when Savile was presenting it.

HOW DARE THE BBC PROFIT OFF THIS!!

The police were completely absent during all of this too. Now if you say naughty words the police will turn up.

Coogan was absolutely fantastic in this, reminds me of Bruno Ganz's portrayal of Hitler in Downfall. Terrible person, humanized but not glorified by a masterful performance. Coogan's presence was hair raising throughout, the producers did a great job.

Steve Coogan was exceptional in this. I knew he did the impression for Jimmy when Spitting Image was in its glory but, he got everything else down perfectly. The mannerisms, the motions. By God, it was scary close. He deserves many BAFTAs. Superb work.

One thing the young lady who committed suicide. She wasnt Asian and she didn't wtite a suicide note, she left a diary why? Saying she left a suicide note and changing her colour ?