17 October 2023 , 14:55
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Louis Theroux has shared his regret at failing to expose Jimmy Savile during his sit-down chat with the notorious BBC star, who had dodged whispers about his private life for decades.
Twenty years-on from When Louis Met... Savile show aired, Louis said he still wishes he had a time machine so that he could undergo the documentary differently 'armed with all the information he has now. Despite his regret, Louis said he still maintains the interview is an incredibly important piece of work.
Savile fooled the nation with his eccentric TV persona and endless fundraising, however, behind closed doors lay a deeply dark and sinister secret as the disgraced DJ used his good deeds to hide in plain sight and got away with sexually abusing hundreds of victims for more than 50 years.
It wasn't until after his death in 2011 that his sickening crimes came to light, and Savile was finally uncovered as a vile paedophile and rapist. While it's claimed that several high profile people knew what was going on and never questioned Savile, one person to break the mold and ask him outright if he was a paedophile was documentary maker Louis - who has since shared his regrets about not exposing the disgraced star sooner.
Louis Theroux has said he is proud of his documentary with Jimmy Savile (BBC)
Louis followed Jimmy for several months while making the chilling documentary (PA)Back in 2020, Louis, 53, revisited some of his early work for an enlightening new series. Louis said at the time that he dedicated six chapters of his memoir to examining his interaction with Savile, which remains the biggest regret of his career.
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“I feel as though it was a lot to live through,” he said. “I just had a front row seat at something that we all lived through in Britain. It was one of the reasons for writing the book, was to kind of talk about the impact of that story on me.”
However, speaking to The Mirror, the documentary-maker said that he does not regret making the programme and is proud that it “holds up” as a piece of journalism. “If you’re asking, do I wish I’d made that programme and been able to expose him? I mean, it’s a bit like saying, do I wish I could turn cheese into chocolate? Do I wish I could fly? Do I wish I could go back in time and predict the outcome of the World Cup and make millions of pounds?
“Do I wish I could go back and expose Jimmy Savile as a sex offender? Yeah, of course. If I did that story with a time machine and went back again, I would be armed with so much more information. But I really think that, given what we knew then, it’s a piece of work that holds up.”
“I’m still proud of that programme. I think that’s a really solid piece of work, and I think of all the TV that was ever made about him while he was alive, that was easily the most revealing.”
Louis said he was 'glad' that the conclusion of the 2000 programme, which he followed up in 2016 after Savile was finally exposed as one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders, was that the track-suit wearing TV presenter was odd, creepy and secretive. “It wasn’t as though I went, ‘You know what? He’s a good bloke.’ Or, ‘He’s fine. Clean bill of health.’ At the end I was like, ‘He’s mystifying. He’s clearly incredibly tough in terms of his level of steely self-possession, and his sex life remains a complete enigma.’”
He famously followed the Jim'll Fix It star for several months as part of his When Louis Met... series in 2000. He interviewed the presenter, whom he had previously described as his childhood hero, at his homes in Leeds, Scarborough and Glencoe. When he was alive, the entertainer, who died aged 84, faced multiple allegations of sexual offences, however, they were all dismissed. He even made disturbing jokes about the rumours in live interviews.
The chilling documentary even showed Louis asking Jimmy directly about the speculation around whether he was in fact a paedophile. In response, Savile gave a chilling reply, putting the blame on society. "[We] live in a very funny world," he said.
Louis asked Jimmy outright if he was a paedophile in the doc (BBC)"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.... How do they know whether I am [a paedophile] or not? How does anybody know whether I am? Nobody knows whether I am or not." Brazenly lying, he added: "I know I'm not."
Immediately after his death, the BBC's Newsnight began an investigation into reports that he was a sexual abuser. The full extent of his crimes was later revealed in a 2013 report, which recorded 214 criminal offences committed by the star, some of which took place at hospitals, including Great Ormond Street in London and Wheatfields Hospice in Leeds.
Savile's offending is thought to have started in the mid-1940s, when Savile was in his late teens or early twenties, and lasted until 2009, two years before his death. A 2016 report into his abuse found staff at the BBC missed numerous opportunities to stop Savile.
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In 2020 when Louis created the second documentary in 2016 interviewing some of Savile's victims, said he was "still proud" of the first documentary but wished he could have exposed Savile. He had previously described the encounter as "the strangest and most upsetting event I've ever been involved in".
"I've watched it since the revelations came out and I'm struck by how much is there. It's very far from soft journalism." He added: "We all knew he was doing some act. He would more or less invite people to believe he had secrets."
In recent weeks, the nation has been gripped by the Savile scandal once again thank to the chilling new BBC One series, The Reckoning, which sees actor Steve Coogan play Savile. Viewers of the four-part series have said they felt 'sick to their stomachs' after watching Coogan's eerily similar voice and mannerisms as Savile's hideous sex crimes played out.
If you've been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999
The Reckoning returns to BBC One on Monday at 9pm