Savile - The Beast: The Inside Story of the Greatest Scandal in TV History. John McShane
to propel him into the stratosphere of stardom, but it was not to be the last.
His name became synonymous with the phrase ‘Clunk Click Every Trip’ in a series of public information films on behalf of ROSPA, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. The slogan had been introduced during the previous campaign, fronted by Shaw Taylor, but it was Savile who, from 1971 onwards, made it famous as he urged viewers to put their seatbelts on every time they set out on a journey, years before wearing them finally became compulsory in the UK in 1983. It was one of the phrases by which he was to be remembered. The advertisements, which included graphic sequences of drivers being thrown through the windscreen and an image of a disfigured woman who survived such an accident, helped lay the groundwork for compulsory seatbelt use in the front seat of a vehicle.
In one episode Savile explained how most road accidents occur on short trips and often on roads with which the driver is familiar, such as a woman going shopping for groceries or taking children to and from school. Another episode, called Loose Objects, showed the difference seatbelts can make in an accident by using an egg in two different boxes to illustrate its point.
It led to a show he hosted called Clunk Click which briefly ran on BBC television. After his death it emerged that he had given three youngsters who appeared on the programme £10 each – then claimed it back in expenses from the BBC. Whilst on radio he had joined the fledgling Radio 1 in 1968 where he presented Savile’s Travels, a weekly Sunday show where he travelled up and down the country with a tape recorder chatting to interesting people and playing records. In one episode, he climbed Ben Nevis in the middle of winter.
From 1969 to 1973 he also fronted Radio 1’s Speakeasy, with its catchy theme music, ‘Yakety Yack’ by The Coasters. It was an hour-long uninhibited discussion programme for young people, with debates and music, and it dealt with serious issues such as war, education, health, religion and politics.
One researcher on that show was to write in 2012: ‘I soon learned that the show’s presenter, Savile, functioned in London out of a Winnebago parked between Broadcasting House reception and All Soul’s, Langham Place, into which a stream of very young women flowed. This went on in a semi-public way, under the eyes of BBC management. What’s more, Speakeasy, a discussion show aimed at a young audience, was a co-production between light entertainment and religious broadcasting. How could the head of religious broadcasting, Rev John Lang [who later became Dean of Lichfield and died in 2012] have allowed such behaviour to go on? My recollection is that they were awed by Savile’s status and the access to youth culture he provided; grateful for the chance he offered to break out of the ghetto of religious broadcasting.’
If any programme could surpass Savile’s success on Top of the Pops, however, it was the successor to Clunk Click, the phenomenon known as Jim’ll Fix It.
The show first appeared on British screens on 31 May 1975 and ran in the early evening on Saturdays until July 1994. It was a natural progression for Savile, who now became an avuncular figure, albeit a slightly odd-looking one, for millions. And having been surrounded by teenagers on TOTP the youngsters involved in Jim’ll Fix It were often children.
Each week, Savile would ‘fix it’ for the wishes of several viewers, invariably children, to come true. The producer was Roger Ordish, referred to by Savile as ‘Doctor Magic’. The standard format was that the viewer’s letter, which described their wish, would be shown on the screen and read out aloud, initially by Savile but in later series by the viewer himself or herself as a voice-over.
Then Savile would introduce the ‘Fix’, which would either have been pre-filmed on location or take place in the studio. At the end, the viewer would join Savile to be congratulated and presented with a large medal with the words ‘Jim Fixed It For Me’ engraved on it. The badges became highly collectable and for many years after their appearance the youngsters who earned them would show them off with pride, even when they were well into adulthood. Occasionally other people such as actors from well-known series featured and they might also give the viewer an extra gift somehow relating to the Fix. Savile himself played no part in the filming or recording of the Fix, unless specifically requested as part of the letter-writer’s wish.
So well-known did the show become that many boys and girls wrote to ‘Dear Jim’ll’ as if that was his first name. Early series saw Savile distributing medals from a ‘magic chair’ which concealed the medals in a number of discreet sections.
Among the famous ‘Fixes’ were the troupe of cub scouts who tried to eat their packed lunches on the rollercoaster at The Pleasure Beach in Blackpool and a young Doctor Who fan who got the chance to appear in an episode of the science fiction series. The horror film actor Peter Cushing appeared when he had his wish to have a variety of rose named after his late wife Helen come true and a ‘priceless antique’ vase was broken on purpose in a staged accident on Antiques Roadshow, unbeknown to many of the horrified onlookers.
Savile insisted on travelling first class and was well remunerated for hotel, food and drink expenses.
By 1980, TV executives agreed he was due a ‘significant increase’ for Jim’ll Fix It and he landed a £600-per-episode deal – nearly £1,800 when adjusted for inflation. He also demanded the BBC paid for a new suit for each of the 13 programmes on one series. A memo in 1989 said: ‘Perhaps predictably Jimmy has raised the question of expenses using the argument that although he maintains a flat in London, he is now principally resident in Leeds.’ It was later agreed he should be paid £200 for every trip – equivalent to roughly £1,500 at the time of his death. By 1990, his Jim’ll Fix It fee had soared to a massive, for the time, £2,350 per episode.
Savile was at his showbiz peak. In the world of what is now deemed classic British family-by-the-fireside television; Morecambe and Wise, Steptoe and Son, The Two Ronnies, The Sweeney, The Generation Game and many more, there was Savile ranking alongside the greats.
His charity work was to enlarge that profile even more, to such an extent that it gave him access, and influence, to the Great and the Good. It was a reputation he all too readily exploited for his own evil purposes.
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