Friday 12 October 2012

Jimmy Savile and Peter Sutcliffe - possibly the creepiest picture I have ever seen

Hat-tip: Telegraph blogs (read full article here)

Apparently, the albino sex pervert befriended the psychopathic sex-killer on visits to Broadmoor - where, it's becoming increasingly apparent, Savile himself belonged. A case of like attracting like, one presumes.

The pity, of course, is that Frank Bruno (who was there to open a gym) didn't take the opportunity of laying into these vile monsters when he had the chance - he wasn't the greatest boxer of his era, let's face it, but two good punches would have done the job. But as Frank was there on a duty call, and he wouldn't have had a clue about Savile's extra-curricular activities, one can hardly blame him.

How prescient Chris Morris's 1994 fake radio announcement of Savile's death (Savile threatened to sue) now seems:


He knows a raving creep when he sees one, Chris Morris.

Like most of us, I've been trying to figure out how Savile was allowed to get away with it (even allowing for the fact that he was evidently an exceptionally cunning criminal). How exactly did the police, the press, the NHS and the BBC manage allow a predatory paedophile who was constantly in the public eye - and who many, many people evidently knew to be a predatory paedophile - manage to run riot for decades? The only one of these areas I've had any experience of is the BBC, so I'll confine my remarks to them.

When I worked, briefly, for the BBC's Television department nearly a decade ago, I was startled by the nauseatingly oleaginous attitude to "stars". There was a habit amongst senior executives of referring to "talent" by their christian names, invariably employing the soft, honeyed tone normally reserved for a favourite child. Because all news and current affairs presenters came from the same pool as production staff, "stars" there were treated with grudging respect at best, mixed with a healthy dollop of disdain - they tended to be viewed as jammy sods who were being paid wildly over the odds for doing a job that was much easier than the one they used to do (i.e. reporting on crimes, industrial disputes or foreign wars) or the ones most of us were still doing. (To be fair to them, most presenters felt the same way about themselves.)  

Contrariwise, for TV folk, actors and presenters were members of a different, superior race, whose talent - no matter how slight - allowed them to behave like spoiled brats whose every whim had to be humoured. Personally, I thought some of them needed a quick smack and to be sent to bed without supper (or alcohol, or drugs). The reason why Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand ended up outraging the nation behaving like cruel, smutty little children with the collusion of production staff is that they were endlessly indulged - financially and otherwise - by the very people whose duty it was to control them: control was out - fan-worship was in. 

I'm assuming (I hope) that all that nonsense has stopped and that on-screen talent paid small fortunes from our licence fees are now expected to behave like responsible adults. 

I can't now remember exactly when I first heard the rumours about Savile's vile proclivities. Probably while I was working at Radio 2 in  the mid-1980s (where, I'm surprised to discover, Savile never worked - he was still employed by Radio 1 at the time). I expect one of the programme producers told me. I seem to remember that Savile's caravan was mentioned as the scene of assaults on underage girls. If someone as junior and unimportant and new to the BBC as I was at that time knew about it, then thousands of other employees must have heard the same rumours, and dozens must have had more direct knowledge of what was going on. And if several of those in the know weren't senior executives who were in a position to do something about it, then I''m the current Chairman of the BBC Trust.

Shameful.

13 comments:

  1. I can't believe I'm seeing here. You know how things go over here.

    We had a similar character operating during the same period...Ted Bundy. He never got a swanky track suit (much less celebrity visits)...he had his "arse" stuffed with cotton and was fried.

    Of course, I now know that he was prosecuted in an odd way. That brings me to my second point..because of this post, I spent the whole afternoon (I don't have any work on Friday afternoon but am expected to sit in the office)reading about Peter Sutcliffe...and Bill Tracey. Fascinating...if not pleasant.

    I've seen the Red Ridding Trilogy (and wrote about it on the blog) and understood that it wasn't a documentary. I thought it was gorgeous to watch but, was irritated by its tone. Anyway...

    Jimmy Savile seems to have been an atrocious man.

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    1. I'm a fairly keen adherent of the "arse stuffed with cotton and fry the bastard" school of law enforcement. Bundy's was a fascinating case - a perfect example of a psychopath - charming and clever, could never stick at anything long enough to succeed at it (except serial killing, of course), and utterly without a conscience.

      I wonder if the child-abusing psychopath is a different kettle of fish - after all, Jimmy Savile (who we now discover was practically put in charge of Britain's main facility for the criminally insane, Broadmoor, where the above picture was taken - he had a flat there, the keys, and the unsupervised run of the place) and your own Jerry Sandusky fit the psycho bill, apart from their enormous worldly success, whiich, of course, provided them with the protection they needed in order to go on offending.

      Agreed on the Red Riding trilogy - David Peace is a good writer ("The Damned United" about football manager Brian Clough was a great novel) but the relentlessly left-wing view of 1970s society - that every single successful Briton was (a) a freemason, (b) a Tory voter and (c) on the take and (d) a sexual pervert has become a cliché of TV drama over the years. Mind you, I wouldn't mind reading a Peace novel about the Savile scandal - I reckon he'd do a great job, if he could just keep his politics under wraps.

      The really odd thing about Savile is that I'm sure 75% of the country loathed him and sensed that all his charity work was some kind of a front - collectively we sensed he was a wrong 'un, but that didn't stop TV and radio giving him as much work as he could handle in between raping and otherwise abusing children. The media tried to turn him into what's known here as a "national treasure", but, thankfully, it never really worked - we knew he was a repulsive sleazeball.

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    2. Loved the Damned United. In a way that story is very familiar...College Football which obviously I love with a perverse passion is a coach driven game. Coaches become icons, the faces of an entire state, even region..Bear Bryant*, General Neyland, Shug Jordan and Steve Freaking Spurrier. Spurrier and Clough are really two peas in a pod. Loved it.

      There's also a college football element to the Jerry Sandusky story...beyond the obvious point that he coached at Penn State...one that you may not be aware of. Penn State was constantly pointed to as an example of "doing things the right way." Often used to point a finger at us in The South. We are too focused on winning and don't care about the development of young men. Not so at Penn State where they "do things the right way." It's typical sentiment...especially in the midwest...where they are dead certain of their sober moral superiority. In their minds we are notorious cheaters (how else could we dominate them at anything).

      For the sake of argument, let's just say we cheat at football...We don't rape children.

      I guess the sandusky's and savile's have to have stability to do their disgusting business. It seems they aren't killers so they need a reputation that helps them gain trust...need the facade of stability for access. Aughta be a wad of cotton for them too.

      I was born in Tallahassee. I was a kid when those girls were killed at Florida State University. It's a strange thing to have memories of that time before he was caught. It's such a well known story now. Supposedly he asked a friend at one point, after he was arrested in Colorado...where do they have the death penalty and use it. The friend told him Florida.

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    3. Forgot...

      *In the early 70's there was a poll by Time or Life or...The three greatest Southerners: Robert E Lee, Elvis Presely and Bear Bryant.

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  2. This is the best post you have written to date.Sahn,you done us proud.

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  3. What about the paedophiles in St John ambulance who are about to be awarded by the Queen:
    http://bit.ly/ourNZexperience

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  4. That's certainly an extraordinary picture! I can't imagine how anyone would willingly shake hands with Sutcliffe. Mind you, from that picture, if you didn't know better, you might think he was quite a nice bloke. What year was it, by the way? I thought someone at some point attacked Sutcliffe and blinded him in one eye.

    But on the subject of the BBC, haven't they always had a slightly perverse culture? Take Captain Pugwash, for example. I always used to watch him every week as a kid. Not top of my list, but good stuff anyway. Then recently to my horror I discovered that all the names had sexual connotations. Pugwash is Aussie slang for blow job, and then there's Master Bates (masturbates) and Seaman Staines (semen stains). So clearly there was already something very fishy going on within the BBC even before Savile!

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  5. I am instructed by my client, a seafaring gentleman of impeccable character, to point out that the post above contains allegations that are wholly and utterly without foundation and amount to a serious libel on both his professional and personal reputation. When the issue was last tested before a court (Ryan vs Guardian 1991) the aforementioned newspaper was obliged to pay substantial damages to the plaintiff and issue a retraction, on the finding that the material in question amounted to a mendacious falsehood.

    As a simple man of the sea, my client would not wish to see a respectable blog reduced to penury as a result of a similar finding and has indicated that in the circumstances an apology couched in appropriately humble terms will suffice.

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  6. Captain Pugwash inspired the lines in the ancient rugby song "The Good Ship Venus":

    "...And the cabin boy,
    He stuffed his arse
    With broken glass
    And circumsized the skipper."

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  7. I thought that, in acting on behalf of the interests of my client, I had advanced a case understandable to persons of reason whereby if the person hereinafter and indeed heretofore known as Tropical Rob, together with the web host, a person known as Gronmark, admitted spreading a falsehood, established as such in the case referred to in posts above, an apology might be forthcoming. To those persons active in the case I shall now add the person represented by the term 'SDG', whose address and full name we have yet to wstablish.

    In the absence of the simple apology sought by my principal client, and the case having further developed in so far as I now act in addition ex parte for Tom the Cabin Boy, Master Mates, Jake the Pirate, Barnabas, Jonah and Stinkah, I should advise that the reputational damages liable are increasing exponentially in relation to the quotidien absence of a response from the potential defendants.

    I look forward to your response.

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  8. Blistering barnacles! I believe you're right, dear lawyer. I've done some research and it seems that Ryan did indeed successfully sue the Guardian. But how on earth did a newspaper as reputable as the Guardian come to print something of such a dubious nature in the first place?

    As for myself, it was too long ago for me to accurately remember the names. But anyway, I would most certainly like to offer my humblest apologies to the dear Captain and his crew. In fact, I would go on to say that he was one of my childhood heroes and inspired me greatly in many of my later exploits in life. How is he now, by the way? Please pass on my regards to him.

    Of course, my comments were designed primarily as feedback on the BBC rather any specific afront to Captain Pugwash and his crew. It seems we're going to have to give the BBC the benefit of the doubt in this case.

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  9. Newspaper...Guardian...reputable....for how long exactly have you been in the Tropics?

    By the way, the expression "Blistering Barnacles" is attributable to one of my other high- profile nautical clients but as it has not been trademarked you may feel free to continue to use it.

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  10. It is difficult to believe that BBC staff were not actively engaged in Saville's misdeeds ie pparticipating.

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