JIMMY SAVILE: A BRITISH HORROR STORY on Netflix is a new two-part documentary series. Watching this documentary clearly shows how certain people have gotten away with their crimes for far too long. Read our full Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story documentary review here!
JIMMY SAVILE: A BRITISH HORROR STORY is a new Netflix documentary series in two parts. The combined runtime is almost three hours but it isn’t a minute too long. It’s as grotesque as it is fascinating because this is a “true crime” story in all its glory (or rather: gory).
Also, watching this documentary is a perfect example of why certain people (usually men of power and/or fame) have been getting away with their crimes for far too long. Jimmy Savile managed to abuse children for more than 50 (yes, fifty!) years. In the case of Jimmy Savile, children are the main victims. However, he also deceived most of a nation which seems insane in hindsight!
Continue reading our Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story documentary review below. You can find both episodes on Netflix now!
Making and finding the monster
Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story is divided into two parts. Episode 1 is the first part of this story and it’s aptly titled “Making a monster”. This is where we’re introduced to how big a figure Jimmy Savile was in the UK. I mean, he was virtually an adviser to everyone from the Prime Minister to the Royal family.
“Why?” You might ask. I know I did. The answer seems to be because he is someone people listen to and because he gets things done. Yes, it is that simple. Just as it was simple for Bill Cosby or Harvey Weinstein to get away with their crimes for so long. Hell, even many serial killers get away with their crimes for decades simply by appearing to be decent and “upstanding” citizens.
In other words, it’s hardly anything new, but in the case of Jimmy Savile, it does come across as completely grotesque that a TV persona should ever have so much power.
Part two of the story covered in Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story is the reveal, so episode 2 is titled “Finding the monster”. After having seen (and marveled at) how Jimmy Savile became a huge star in the UK (“making a monster”), we see everything crumble down as the truth finally comes out. “Finding the monster” is tough to watch, but it is also important!
A horror story, indeed!
Being a child in the 1980s and watching British television, I am familiar with Jimmy Savile through the UK chart show “Top of the Pops”. I didn’t grow up in the UK, so he wasn’t constantly on TV in my household. For as long as I can remember, I saw Jimmy Savile as a very strange and weird man. Someone, I did not like at all.
However, again, that might be because I only really saw him on “Top of the Pops” and not in all kinds of news and TV shows all the time. I can imagine that sort of exposure will desensitize people to his rather eccentric ways.
That’s why I also suspect that people who aren’t really familiar with him – apart from when his crimes were exposed – will find it very strange that this man was some sort of hero.
Then again, you watch Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story and realize that the man consistently and constantly (over the course of decades) continues to make crude and demeaning remarks about women. Or mostly, teenage girls! I know, I know, many will say “Well, times were different back then!” They were, I recognize that. But surely some people could see him for what he was.
And yes, some people could and did. This is why there were persistent rumors. Those rumors turned out to be true (or in some cases much worse) as is so often the case. For me, I am always left with this thought: When people tell you who they are, believe them!
Watch Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story on Netflix now!
Rowan Deacon is the director of this new Netflix true-crime documentary. He has plenty of experience with producing and directing documentaries, which he proves with his work on Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story.
As many people, who become familiar with Jimmy Savile through this Netflix documentary will probably agree, Jimmy Savile did show the world who he was. And he reveled in the fact that people continued to adore him in spite (and sometimes because) of this. A dirty old man, that’s who he was. And a criminal who got away with far too much, for far too long.
Do not miss out on this two-part documentary series. Even if you don’t know who he is, you will know everything by the end of watching this. Of course, you might wish you hadn’t watched this gruesome story. However, not knowing about the terrible things happening is exactly how these people can continue to use and abuse people.
Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story is out on Netflix from April 6, 2022.
Plot
Jimmy Savile rose to prominence in a career spanning decades in the entertainment industry in the UK. He had raised millions for charity, been knighted by the Queen and achieved national treasure status by the time he died on the 29th October 2011. His funeral was broadcast live on the BBC. Since his death, independent investigations and those made by Scotland Yard uncovered that Savile had been a prolific and predatory sex offender, abusing hundreds of people, some as young as 5.
To date, more than 450 allegations of sexual assault and abuse have been made against him. The documentary examines, through extensive archive footage, Savile’s relationship with the British people, the establishment and the media to understand how he managed to fool an entire nation for so long.
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