POSSIBLE SPOILERS: I have only just seen this documentary and I found it very sad and disturbing. Jimmy Savile was an ikon in my youth, from "Top of The Pops" to "Jim'll Fix It", etc, but Louis Theroux seems to have scratched Savile's underbelly to expose a lonely, depressed and essentially unlikable man. Jimmy's cigar comes across as some kind of prop to shield him from the pitiful reality of himself - this is Jimmy Savile, so there has to be a cigar in virtually every frame! Theroux was brilliant at digging out the demons in Savile and, essentially what he uncovers (or insinuates) is left to the viewer's imagination. That whole episode of Jimmy's mother's flat - the woman had been dead since 1973 yet Jimmy still kept up maintenance of the property and never threw out her old clothes. Her bedroom is basically a shrine to a woman who, amongst other revelations, never let Jimmy bring girl's back to the flat. There was something very unsettling about the photo on the mantelpiece - Jimmy, looking very girlyish, lying on the floor in a nightgown reading a book while his Mother looked on. There was something very Norman Batesy about the whole thing, and I was left wondering if Jimmy had a Mother-fixation, as though through maintaining the flat, her images and her clothes, he could somehow keep her alive in his own mind. Was Jimmy, perhaps, the daughter she never had? It certainly seems a plausible train of thought and I sensed that Theroux had Jimmy on the ropes, sensing some dark secret. As I said, though, interpretations are cunningly left to the imagination of the viewer. In fact, I found the whole programme quite disturbing insofar as it insinuated - quite rightly - that Savile was a self-publicist who's only real friend was the photographer or the television camera covering his charity works and his personal mishaps. Jimmy Savile came across as a sad shell of a man, a man without any real companion in the world other than his dead mother. Jimmy Savile, that old eccentric Jimmy we all love, the programme strongly suggested, was a total fabrication, a falsity, a lie. Ultimately there is a degree of sympathy expressed for Jimmy, but the overall view is of a man deeply disturbed, immersed in his own myth. A dark, disturbing documentary, but a brilliant exposé of the deep scars often hidden behind the glare of the cameras. The price of fame, indeed.
5 Reviews
Very, very creepy, especially in hindsight.
mkm-hermanjnr31 October 2018
As a millennial, I didn't know Jimmy Savile for his public persona. He only really came to prominence in my mind after his public outing as a controlling and deranged sexual predator.
Even with that bias in my head, I tried to watch this documentary objectively and it becomes immediately clear that Savile is a dark and depraved character merely from watching his actions in the documentary. His public personality was a mere front.
This inner darkness is obvious from the moment Theroux begins talking to him. He speaks in bizarre riddles, none of which are particularly amusing or witty, obfuscating any real details about his personal life behind his "humour". When asked if he has relationships, he immediately begins complaining that women specialise in "brain damage", repeating this misogynistic mantra as if it should be hilarious, to the clear discomfort of Theroux.
Things get worse as the documentary goes on. Theroux politely says that "reality isn't always positive" when Savile begins saying that TV programmes should show things in a good light.
Savile responds with a thinly veiled icy threat that Theroux seems to awkwardly mistake for a joke: "Make it as negative as you like. I'll take you to court, take your money. Money has no conscience."
The way he talks so casually about legal action and these threats, framing himself as "The Godfather", discussing "his boys", saying "I can get anything" and "I have everything under control." ...it frames a picture of a man nothing less than a psychopath.
If you have the stomach to observe such a wretched man behaving in such an unnerving and unpleasant manner, this is a reflective expose of a man who in only a short decade would become publicly reviled.
Even with that bias in my head, I tried to watch this documentary objectively and it becomes immediately clear that Savile is a dark and depraved character merely from watching his actions in the documentary. His public personality was a mere front.
This inner darkness is obvious from the moment Theroux begins talking to him. He speaks in bizarre riddles, none of which are particularly amusing or witty, obfuscating any real details about his personal life behind his "humour". When asked if he has relationships, he immediately begins complaining that women specialise in "brain damage", repeating this misogynistic mantra as if it should be hilarious, to the clear discomfort of Theroux.
Things get worse as the documentary goes on. Theroux politely says that "reality isn't always positive" when Savile begins saying that TV programmes should show things in a good light.
Savile responds with a thinly veiled icy threat that Theroux seems to awkwardly mistake for a joke: "Make it as negative as you like. I'll take you to court, take your money. Money has no conscience."
The way he talks so casually about legal action and these threats, framing himself as "The Godfather", discussing "his boys", saying "I can get anything" and "I have everything under control." ...it frames a picture of a man nothing less than a psychopath.
If you have the stomach to observe such a wretched man behaving in such an unnerving and unpleasant manner, this is a reflective expose of a man who in only a short decade would become publicly reviled.
The subtle unveiling of a monster. Brilliant work by Theroux.
MartinHughHenley1 July 2015
I can say in all sincerity I never bought into the bullshit image peddled by Saville from day 1. After originally watching this documentary Saville knew it, Theroux knew it & I knew it - Saville was indeed an empty shell with more than enough skeletons to fill a cemetery in his closet. It was therefore absolutely no surprise to me when the huge-scale crimes from Saville's paedophilic past emerged following his death. An absolutely riveting, disturbing & revealing documentary. Louis Theroux's finest work? Maybe. (Read Doire of Sweden's review - very well-written of which I concur 100%). Highly recommended.
Essential viewing
Zerbey7 April 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Watching the new Netflix documentary, which does briefly cover this one also, made me think about this. When I first watched it, it was the year 2000. I watched it with a friend and both of us were of an age were we'd grown up watching "Jim'll Fix It!" and of course we had dreamed of one day being featured on the show.
The initial excitement of watching some lucky reporter spend a few days with someone we idolized slowly gave way to first confusion, then we just got more and more disturbed as the documentary progressed. Of course, at the time we had no idea of Savile's true depravity. We both concluded he was hiding something truly awful, and I never looked at him in the same way again.
Watching it now in context, it was clearly obvious the man had some very dark secrets that were barely concealed under the surface. I would recommend watching this then the Netflix documentary.
The initial excitement of watching some lucky reporter spend a few days with someone we idolized slowly gave way to first confusion, then we just got more and more disturbed as the documentary progressed. Of course, at the time we had no idea of Savile's true depravity. We both concluded he was hiding something truly awful, and I never looked at him in the same way again.
Watching it now in context, it was clearly obvious the man had some very dark secrets that were barely concealed under the surface. I would recommend watching this then the Netflix documentary.
Good subject, good chemistry, good documentary
bob the moo28 March 2002
Louis spends time with charity-working celebrity Jimmy Savile. He sees his homes and joins him on public appointments. Over breakfast, lunches, late nights and early mornings they get to know each other.
Like most of Louis characters, Jimmy is a bit of a character and a bit of a social misfit. We all know who he is but know little about him, what makes him tick or how he lives. Louis gets close enough to actually see beyond the character and expose areas of his life that he doesn't usually show. His relationship with his dead mother is strange he calls her the Duchess and keeps all her clothes perfectly in her room.
Louis clearly gets attached to Jimmy and they do get on all right. Jimmy's character doesn't seem to be a character he doesn't seem to have a guard up at all and lets Louis do anything he wants.
Overall this is one of Louis best an interesting subject, a good chemistry and plenty of interesting tit-bits.
Like most of Louis characters, Jimmy is a bit of a character and a bit of a social misfit. We all know who he is but know little about him, what makes him tick or how he lives. Louis gets close enough to actually see beyond the character and expose areas of his life that he doesn't usually show. His relationship with his dead mother is strange he calls her the Duchess and keeps all her clothes perfectly in her room.
Louis clearly gets attached to Jimmy and they do get on all right. Jimmy's character doesn't seem to be a character he doesn't seem to have a guard up at all and lets Louis do anything he wants.
Overall this is one of Louis best an interesting subject, a good chemistry and plenty of interesting tit-bits.
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