Since 2012, the sinister truth about one man changed the way police handle inquiries into allegations of sexual abuse. Operation Yewtree emerged. It forced copious hospitals (most notably Stoke Mandeville, and Broadmoor Hospital), Duncroft school, and the BBC to look into serious reports that there was a miscarriage of justice that took place in each institution. An untouchable force whose death meant that the truth would finally catch up with him...
Shortly after the Dame Janet Smith report into over 70 counts of sexual abuse by the shamed TV presenter Jimmy Savile was made public on February of this year, BBC1 were planning to run an hour and a half documentary that had been a year in the making. It was going to interview several of Savile's victims, and give them a voice for their stories to be heard without any sign of Savile's face throughout the documentary. In a way, I actually found it more creepy how one of the clips they showed was the back of his head as he went into Broadmoor as "entertainment officer". There was an air of ominousness that prevailed. The documentary was given the name "Abused: The Untold Story".
Dee Coles was the first person to have her interview aired on TV, so it only seemed appropriate that she would get the first say when his funeral was brought up as the timeline of his abuse began unfolding. Her account of being a 14 year old girl who was starstruck by him while she and her Mum seen him on vacation is slowly shattered by the pain she felt after he attacked her in his caravan, and she was unable to tell her Mum, fearing that she would suffer the same heartache she was burdened with afterwards. It was a moment where you really felt the turmoil of the story. She even admitted that she took beater blockers on her first interview so that she could relay the story without much reserve, however she opted not to use them this time, making it really hard hitting for her.
The first person to be interviewed way back in 2011 when Savile died was Karen Ward, who had been watching the funeral on TV, outraged by all of these people saying he was a saint for raising £40m for charity (regarded now as a smokescreen for his activities), and a great British eccentric at the heart of the establishment (which, with hindsight, the "eccentricity" was a clever disguise for his undercurrent of darkness). She wrote her account of abuse at the hands of JS who was a "cigar smoking celebrity" (as the narrator put it) who went to Duncroft regularly in the early 70's. He would bring in gifts (like cigarettes, perfume etc.), offer trips in his Rolls Royce and access to his TV shows (Clunk Click) as a way of enabling his abuse on all of the girls. When Newsnight reporter Meirion Jones read the account, and discovered that it was an accurate description of his aunt's school Duncroft, and that "JS" was indeed Jimmy Savile, he knew that the stories and allegations he heard were becoming true. Meirion wasn't there when her interview was taken place, but the Newsnight team (including journalist Liz MacKean) went to Karin's house to get her to speak on camera. Shortly afterwards, the BBC slated tributes to be broadcast in honour of Savile, and this clashed with the Newsnight story in a MASSIVE way, causing the story to be shelved.
The document is a scary reflection of the power and influence he wielded over people even in death.
Another story in the documentary was based on a trial that was transpiring in 2015 about a girl who was abused when she was 9 years old. This was a case that had been reopened in the wake of the Savile scandal, and it was used as an example of how big of an impact the scandal had on the nation. Something that struck me about the documentary though was that it seemed to be a convenient way for BBC to try and make amends for their failure to protect children from the harm that Savile sewed over 5 decades. The other thing is the digitalized faces that were used on the victims of predatory paedophile DJ's Chris Denning and Ray Teret. It was too distracting and disturbing for its own good, and their anonymity would have been better protected if it was behind silhouette, in my opinion.
But notwithstanding these pretty major issues in the program, I think it is a powerful document of the distress and trauma that Savile caused in his lifetime. It even highlighted the deceit and method of acting he used when he was interviewed by Surrey police in 2009 about allegations at Duncroft. His cool and calm way of answering each question with "Out of the question!" Is evidence that he was overconfident within himself, and had no fear of ever being exposed in his lifetime (it seems he knew that his legacy would be tarnished after death since he once reportedly said "Bollocks to my legacy!"). Considering the 500 victims that he is known to have abused, I find it incomprehensible how undeterred he was. Even when he worked as a dance hall manager at Leeds in the 50's, he managed to narrowly escape charges by paying off one of his accusor's families. He even openly shared his brushes with the law regarding a 16 year old girl he was questioned over in the book "As it Happens". His shell-suits, the vests he wore, his strange looking costumes, and his tinted glasses made him look like a creep. But because this creep was psychopathic, and clever at ingratiating himself to the highest echelons of society, he managed to escape justice in the end. I find him very fascinating to learn about because of this.
Overall, it is a harrowing documentary of a powerful man who enjoyed seeing pain inflicted on others, and the impact his crimes have had on the serious nature of such allegations. It does feel like the BBC are trying to make themselves look moral in a sense, and the digitalization should never been used in the first place. But out of all the documentaries on Savile, it is the only one that focuses extensively on the victims, and it leaves more of an impact because of that.
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