Savile documentaries failed to explain how he hid in plain sight, BBC executive admits

BBC documentaries on Jimmy Savile have failed to answer how his abuse was able to happen, a senior executive at the corporation has admitted.

Piers Wenger, head of drama, said a forthcoming programme, called The Reckoning and starring Steve Coogan as Savile, would be the first to ask how the presenter was allowed to “hide in plain sight” at the BBC, Stoke Mandeville hospital and Leeds General Infirmary for so long.

He also defended the corporation’s decision to commission a series about Savile, insisting it would “ask many questions” about the failure to identify his heinous crimes.

During a showcase of the BBC’S forthcoming dramas, he said: “The documentaries that have been on, and that will continue to be on, take you so far. They show you again and again the appalling nature of Jimmy Savile’s crimes, but I’ve yet to see one that really answers the question, how did this happen? And how was he able to render his victims so powerless and without a voice for so long?

“And how was he able to hide in plain sight within those institutions, not just the BBC, but Stoke Mandeville, Leeds (General) Infirmary.”

In 2012, ITV aired a programme called The Other Side of Jimmy Savile.

Later that year the BBC aired a panorama called Jimmy Savile – What the BBC Knew after a Newsnight investigation into the entertainer was dropped.

In 2016, they showed Savile by Louis Theroux.

Mr Wenger’s comments mark the first time the BBC has addressed a backlash to the new miniseries.

The corporation has been accused of hypocrisy, with some victims questioning why their plight was being turned into entertainment by the organisation that had harboured Savile for so long.

“The BBC will be a part of it, because that was a part of Savile’s story, there’s no getting away from it, nor would we want to,” Mr Wenger insisted. “There are still many important questions that need to be answered about Savile and many questions that we are asking of ourselves through that drama.”

BBC shows Jim’ll Fix It and Top of the Pops allowed Savile to maintain close contact with children for years, while senior figures were warned about his “darker side”.

The following month, a Newsnight investigation that would have exposed Savile’s child abuse was dropped by then editor Peter Rippon after he decided that victims’ claims were “contestable” and “not worth the fuss”.

An independent inquiry into the scandal concluded in 2012 that the decision to abort the programme “started a chain of events that was to prove disastrous for the BBC”.

Nick Pollard, a former head of Sky News who carried out an investigation into the affair, said infighting, flawed decision-making and “rigid management chains” at the corporation led to one of the biggest crises in its history.

Mr Wenger said the primary intention of The Reckoning was “to give voice to the victims” and to tell their stories sensitively and with “the utmost respect”.

‘The BBC will be a part of it, because that was a part of Savile’s story, there is no getting away from it’