OPINION: Savile’s Travails (sic)

“Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion.” Julius Caesar (Attrib by Suetonius)

Of all the hogwash I have heard lately, and as a citizen of the fair borough of Rochdale, some of the furore surrounding the Jimmy Savile paedophilia accusations has truly amazed your correspondent.

As I put quill to vellum, the number of alleged victims tops the 300 mark with more no doubt waiting in the wings to tell their tales on Radio 5 Live.

I do not mean to make light of the affair, although I am normally an old-fashioned ‘innocent until proven guilty’ man. This is a serious issue after all and we Rochdalians are particularly sensitive at the moment with regard to offences against children; particularly those with vulnerabilities.

It has been said that the loathsome Savile was ‘hiding out in the open’ and indeed, it does seem that within the hallowed confines of the BBC, he went about his vile business unmolested… unlike his victims.

We have been treated to much hokum with regard to this matter. An emotional Esther Rantzen almost breaking down at the sheer horror of it all before going on to relate shamefacedly how she had given a televised tribute to him

Savile was not Caesar’s wife. He was not the Queen or the Pope. He was a man who had squirmed his way up the greasy pole by spinning records in Manchester nightclubs and just happened to be around when TV companies were desperate to get in on the emergent music scene of the mid-60s.

Surely the BBC, by its very nature, is used to dealing with celebrities whether they be A, B or C listers? Surely, for part of the enormous money we pay for our licence fee, we might have expected someone with the intelligence and the guts to realise that his behaviours were distasteful, unacceptable and downright illegal?

Of course, in those days, there were no routine CRB checks but Savile seems to have operated so blatantly that his behaviour was witnessed and boasted about on umpteen occasions. His behaviour seems to have been an open secret at the Beeb.

When he was questioned about it by a senior BBC executive decades ago, the interview sounded more as if he was thinking of putting up for membership at his local golf club than of being interrogated over serious sexual allegations. No wonder his behaviour went henceforth unchallenged for several more decades.

Savile was certainly a repulsive creature and perhaps the excellent programme that Louis Theroux once did on him came closest to the grasping, strange, self-publicising pervert that he undoubtedly was.

Yes, he raised millions for charities but so what? That should have afforded him no special protection and neither should his backside-kissing forays with royalty and senior political and church figures.

There will be many questions to be asked over the coming months and I anticipate that there will be a few resignations and beating of breasts down at the BBC but will it end there or is celebrity somehow different?

Is the fondling of groupies in their mid teens somehow more acceptable if you are a record producer, DJ or singer with a rock and roll band? We have been asking these sorts of questions since at least the days of Jerry Lee Lewis. There have been famous casualties such as Gary Glitter and Jonathan King, although The Who’s Pete Townsend and the former Rolling Stones guitarist Bill Wyman somehow escaped lifelong ignominy.
Until we accept, at all levels, that the cult of celebrity does not entitle anyone to act outside the rule of law that the rest of have to obey then nothing will change. It would of course be too much to expect rock and rollers; even aging ones, to be role models or shining examples of sexual morality, but we should expect that when they are discovered indulging in sexually reprehensible behaviours with minors, that there should be no cop-out or cover-up.

Caesar’s wives were set aside at the merest hint of suspicion. Others often paid a more drastic price. In Savile’s case, neither happened.