Louis Theroux and Jimmy Savile's odd friendship and regret over paedo's grooming

07 November 2023 , 20:00

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Louis Theroux and Jimmy Savile's odd friendship and regret over paedo's grooming

Louis Theroux was 'groomed' by Jimmy Savile into a bizarre and calculating relationship after the pair struck a bond during the filming of Louis' 2000 documentary, When Louis Met... Jimmy. The two men became 'friendly' over the three months they spent with each other putting together the BAFTA-winning film, to the point that Louis even invited the evil paedophile to come stay with him.

And they remained on such good terms that the following year, in 2001, they met up for further filming - and the camera caught the moment Savile groped a teenage girl at a pizza restaurant in Leeds in front of her own mum. Louis, now 53, revealed he'd felt 'hoodwinked' by Savile when it emerged the BBC star had sexually violated hundreds of victims throughout his career, but they weren't listened to by the establishment until after the Jim'll Fix It star's death in 2011 at the age of 84.

Louis Theroux spent three months filming with Jimmy Savile for his 2000 documentary, while Savile was still perpetuating his sick crimes (BBC)

Louis asked Savile on camera about the paedophilia claims (BBC TWO)

It transpired Savile had molested and sexually assaulted hundreds of women, teenagers and girls - the youngest aged five - over the decades. He never faced justice for his sick crimes, despite multiple victims reporting him to the police. Savile was allowed unfettered access to NHS hospitals and morgues thanks to his status as a celebrity charity fundraiser, although rumours about his dark predilections had circulated while he was still alive.

And Louis had even raised the speculation during their filming, asking Savile whether rumours that he was sexually interested in children were true. "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," the cigar-sucking sicko shot back.

"Is that basically so the tabloids don't pursue this whole 'is he or isn't he a paedophile' line?" asked Louis in the clip caught on camera. "Oh, aye," replied Savile. "How do they know whether I am not? How does anybody know whether I am? Nobody knows whether I am or not. I know I'm not… That's my policy and it's worked a dream."

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Louis admitted being 'groomed' into a friendly relationship with his documentary subject (BBC)

His chilling response came back to haunt Louis the year after his documentary came out, when a woman came forward to say she had been one of Savile's girlfriends when she was just 15. Louis reported her claims to a BBC producer, but it was never followed up.

He has since admitted feeling guilty he didn't do more to bring Savile to justice. Five years after the Top of the Pops host's death, Louis made a second documentary about Savile's crimes and reexamined his own approach to the paedo. He admitted being "silly and gullible" and spoke to several victims about how he'd been taken in by the broadcaster, as "a way to figure out how it was I missed what I missed".

In a piece for the BBC's website, Louis wrote: "At the time [of the 2000 documentary], I'd done my best to be tough with him. I knew he was weird and, with all his mannerisms, rather irritating - I had no interest in making a soft piece about Jimmy the Charity Fundraiser.

Louis and his film crew spent time in Savile's home while making the documentary

"The dark rumours - of sexual deviance, of being unemotional, of having a morbid interest in corpses - were one of the reasons I'd taken him on as a subject. I wanted to get the goods on Savile. The trouble was, I had no clear sense of what those goods were."

He'd kept in touch, Louis said, because he had thought about writing a book about Savile, but hadn't quite "figured him out". "The Jimmy Savile I knew then was a contradictory figure. In some respects, he was enigmatic and slightly remote, hiding behind his show-business patter and anecdotes,” Louis continued.

“But Savile could also come across, and it's not easy to write this now, as a rather likeable person, good-humoured, knowledgeable, "un-starry" in his manner of life and in his friendships with local Leeds characters. His self-centredness had the effect of making him undemanding company, he was relaxing to be around.”

At the Edinburgh TV Festival in 2019, Louis said the pair had had a "friendly relationship" during filming, although he would "never call him my friend". He pointed out his three months spent with Savile back in 2000 was an unwitting "education in grooming" after the paedo "brazenly" addressed the allegations about his sick crimes while operating in plain sight.

Emmeline Saunders