Louis Theroux has offered his verdict on The Reckoning, the BBC’s unflinching drama documenting the life and crimes of child sex offender Jimmy Savile.
Before Savile’s death in 2011, Theroux interviewed the presenter for his special When Louis Met Jimmy, during which he asked Savile about the tabloid rumours that he is a paedophile, something the sex offender denied.
Following Savile’s death, 450 alleged victims contacted the Metropolitan Police in just 10 weeks, with officials describing the scale of allegations against him as "unprecedented".
Theroux would go on to describe the original interview as “the strangest and most upsetting event I’ve ever been involved in”, but say that he was “still proud of that programme”. In 2016, he made a follow-up documentary titled Louis Theroux: Savile.
The BBC would return to the subject of Savile in October 2023, with the drama The Reckoning starring Steve Coogan. A number of the survivors of Savile’s abuse worked on the show.
Speaking at a Q&A ahead of the release of series two of his celebrity interview series Louis Theroux Interviews, Theroux was asked about his thoughts on The Reckoning and whether he felt it was in “bad taste”.
Theroux, 53, said that he couldn’t “judge” the show by that metric, adding: “I’ve only watched episode one and what struck me was they attempted to scrupulously adhere to the facts.
“Like I could actually recognise incidents from the primary sources, whether they were reports from inquiries at Leeds General Infirmary, or an account of an incident at a nightclub that Jimmy Savile himself told me about when I was filming with him, and obviously from Dan Davies’s book In Plain Sight.”
Coogan as Savile in ‘The Reckoning'— (BBC/ITV Studios/Matt Squire)
Released in four parts, The Reckoning proved to be divisive with viewers and critics upon its release. While Coogan’s chilling performance was largely praised, many questioned what was to be gained in making Savile’s story into a drama, particularly given the BBC’s involvement in his career.
Speaking to The Independent, show co-creator Jeff Pope insisted that he and fellow writer Neil McKay never “felt censored, or put under pressure to make changes to go lighter on the BBC” during the filming process. The show was produced by independent ITV studios.
Like the critics, Theroux singled out Coogan for his “excellent” portrayal of Savile in the show. “I thought the writing in terms of the quality of speech, the way in which the character of Jimmy Savile expressed himself in the programme felt very true to life,” he added.
During filming of When Louis Met Jimmy, Theroux travelled to Savile’s homes across the country to get to know the man. At one point in the documentary, when the pair are riding in a car, Theroux asked Savile about the rumours why he often said in interviews that he “hated children”, despite having worked with them throughout his career.
In response, Savile told Theroux: “We live in a very funny world, and it’s easier for me, as a single man, to say, ‘I don’t like children’ because that puts a lot of salacious tabloid people off the hunt.”
During ‘When Louis Met Jimmy’, Theroux asked Savile about rumours he was a paedophile— (BBC)
After Theroux pushing him on the rumours that he is a paedophile, Savile responded: “How do they know whether I am or not? How does anybody know whether I am? Nobody knows whether I am or not. I know I’m not.
“So I can tell you from experience that the easy way of doing it, when they say, ‘Oh, all them children on Jim’ll Fix It?’ ‘Yeah, I hate ‘em.’”
When Theroux suggested this sounded “more suspicious”, Savile replied: “That’s my policy, that’s the way it goes. That’s what I do. It’s worked a dream.”
In a 2021 interview with The Independent, Theroux revealed that he had heard rumours about Savile from a young age, but had never given them much thought.
“Growing up in the 1980s, the idea that Jimmy Savile might be a paedophile or a necrophile, it occupied the same drawer as the idea that a pop star had his stomach pumped and they found 10 pints of semen, or that a Hollywood actor had a rodent removed from his rectum,” he said.
“Both of them are rumours that are not true. That Jimmy Savile goes around fiddling with kids – I thought that was in the same category. The only thing that felt odd later on was the idea that everyone in the playgrounds in the 1980s heard that rumour, so I can only imagine everyone involved in the media would have heard a rumour that there was something dodgy about [him].”
If you are a child and you need help because something has happened to you, you can call the NSPCC free of charge on 0800 1111. You can also call the NSPCC if you are an adult and you are worried about a child, on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adults on 0808 801 0331.
