Louis Theroux says his infamous Jimmy Savile documentary was ‘very far from soft journalism’
Louis Theroux defends his infamous Jimmy Savile documentary as ‘very far from soft journalism’ and says his film with paedophile showed ‘he had secrets’
Louis Theroux says opinion’s divided over how revealing BAFTA-winning film wasJournalist spent three months with Savile for When Louis Met… Jimmy in 2000In doc, he questions Savile over rumours he was sexually interested in childrenHe says ‘we all knew he was doing some act’ after the film was initially broadcast
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Louis Theroux has claimed is infamous documentary with Jimmy Savile years before the entertainer was exposed as a serial child abuser was ‘very far from soft journalism’.
The documentary maker spent three months with Savile for the BAFTA-winning ‘When Louis met Jimmy…’ in 2000 and remained on good terms with him afterwards.
After Savile’s death in 2011, it emerged the broadcaster had sexually abused hundreds of women and children and Theroux said that while opinion is divided, he believes that the film was revealing because, ‘he [Savile] would more or less invite people to believe he had secrets’.
The documentary maker, 51, told The Sunday Times Magazine that he was ‘struck’ by the content of his documentary after watching it back with the knowledge of the paedophile’s crimes.
Louis Theroux has revealed his infamous documentary with Jimmy Savile years before the entertainer was exposed as a serial child abuser was ‘very far from soft journalism’
Referencing an expert in his book in which he says that ‘depending on your point of view, I either made a revealing programme about or failed to make a revealing programme’ about Savile.
‘It’s neither one or the other, is it?’, he told the publication. ‘There’s plenty of ammo you could deploy in either direction. 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. We all knew he was doing some act. He would more or less invite people to believe he had secrets.’
After Savile died in 2011, 450 alleged victims made complaints to the Met Police about him in just 10 weeks.
A subsequent inquiry revealed his horrific reign of abuse dated back to 1959 when he raped a 13-year-old girl, before attacks followed ‘in the corridors, canteens, staircases and dressing rooms of every BBC premises’.
Other vile crimes exposed included the rape of both a virgin teenager in a hotel and a 15-year-old work experience girl he met in the BBC canteen over a cup of tea.
The documentary maker spent three months with Savile for the BAFTA-winning ‘When Louis met Jimmy…’ in 2000 and remained on good terms with him afterwards
More than 20 of Savile’s female victims were aged 15 or younger, the youngest being eight, while young boys – including an eight-year-old – were also preyed on by the depraved monster.
Theroux also did a follow up piece on Savile in which he spoke to several victims, describing the programme as ‘a way to figure out how it was I missed what I missed’.
In his 2000 documentary, Theroux questions Savile over rumours that he was sexually interested in children.
During a chilling exchange Savile says: ‘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.
Theroux asks: ‘Is that basically so the tabloids don’t pursue this whole is he or isn’t he a paedophile line?’
In his 2000 documentary, Theroux questions Savile over rumours that he was sexually interested in children
Savile replies: ‘Oh, aye.
‘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.’
It has since been revealed that Theroux tried to report sexual abuse carried out by Savile after making the film, but it was not followed up.
The filmmaker claims he reported the presenter in 2001, after a woman came forward and told him she’d been one of his girlfriends, along with others, when she was 15, but a BBC producer did not talk to police.
The filmmaker has since spoken of his guilt about not doing more to expose Savile.
In a revealing piece on the BBC website, he said that, like it was suggested by Savile’s victims, he had been ‘hoodwinked’ by the paedophile.
He 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.
‘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.’
