That's about that then...

[hobbes]

Jimmy Savile shakes his jewellery for the last time.

[Wyatt Earp]

That's about that then...

Top thread titling there.

[Mumpo]

That's about that then...

Savile woe.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

That's about that then...

[I withdraw my RIP tribute in the light of the recent revelations which indicate RIH might be a more appropriate sentiment. Astonishing cover up that allowed him to live to a ripe old age with no come-uppance in his lifetime.]

I believe wingco in his student days bumped into Jimmy S when doing a holiday job at LGI at the same time as JS was working there as a volunteer.

[Amor de Cosmos]

That's about that then...

My dad picked him up once hitchhiking for charity. Coincidentally my mate's dad gave Sonny and Cher a ride for the same reason on the same day.

[Duncan Gardner]

That's about that then...

Coincidentally it looks like this month might see the end of Jimmy's mates and another 70s icon, Showaddywaddy. Singer and frontman Dave Bartram has announced his retirement from performing. There are now only two originals left of the band that introduced the squad system decades before professional football- they had two of everything (vcalists, guitar, bass and drums).

[Bored Of Education]

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I think that Showwaddywaddy always remained fairly close to their original line-up even in the latter years.

Hold on, how old is Dave Bartram? He always seemed like the youngest in the band. The only one you can get a birthday for is the man with the best name in showbiz, Romeo Challenger, who is 62.

I notice that Challenger's name is also Challenger (and not Dion Dublin as is often suggested) which suggests that that is actually his real name

[wingco]

That's about that then...

I did work there when he was a volunteer, EEG, but I'm not sure I actually bumped into him - unless I repressed the memory.

A lot of speculation about why he never married, his bizarrely close relationship with his mother and bandying of insinuations about his attitude to kids. I guess there was an enigmatic void in his life where healthy, conventional sexuality normally resides, and this has been filled with some pretty unpleasant, and so far as I know, unsubstantiated aspersions. Maybe there was simply nothing there. His whole life seems to have been one massive act of displacement. I do suspect that nowadays, he simply wouldn't be allowed anywhere near radio or TV. He'd be considered too eccentric, too creepy, press panic buttons that weren't really there in the 60s, 70s. But then, he was a product of his own time.

[hobbes]

That's about that then...

Savile woe

Oh bravo sir.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

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I think it's a little poor to cast any aspersions about Jimmy Saville, a man who pretty much dedicated most of his adult life to making kids' lives better, that are in any way related to the fact he never had children of his own. I suspect that the latter fact is in fact directly related to the former and maybe that's all we need to know.

He was brilliant. Although as he never even replied to my "Jim'll fix it" letter in 1981 when I said I wanted to help commentate on the 1982 FA Cup Final, he can rot in hell.

[evilC]

That's about that then...

Trivia: Saville was the first man to use two record decks, as a live DJ in the 60s, and sequence (rather than actually mix, back then) one record into the next, without a gap in between.

[NickSTFU]

That's about that then...

A mate of mine text me yesterday something along the lines of "For weeks I've been waiting for a celebrity to die so i can tell a joke about it. Jim has fixed for me..."

I had no idea what the fuck he was on about, till this morning.

I used to watch his show with a mixture of envy and resentment that I never got on and stopped watching.

Totally forgotten about him.

[historyman]

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He was an icon alright. I never really watched him on TV that much, as for some reason I could never take to Jim 'll Fix It.

It was his early Sunday afternoon radio show that I remember as a kid, a kind of pick of the pops type show where they would run down the chart on a given week of a previous year. It was partly responsible for beginning my musical education.

I didn't realise until I read the obituaries just how unorthodox his adult life was.

Nor did I realise how sexist this famous 'Clunk Click' ad was until now. This one's for all you ladies out there...

[The Exploding Vole]

That's about that then...

Anyone else out there with Fix It memories?

[Edie St Pierre]

That's about that then...

wingco wrote:

I do suspect that nowadays, he simply wouldn't be allowed anywhere near radio or TV. He'd be considered too eccentric, too creepy, press panic buttons that weren't really there in the 60s, 70s. But then, he was a product of his own time.

In many ways his lifestyle reminds me of a Victorian spinster. His work for charity seems completely in accord with that too.

[Lucia Lanigan]

That's about that then...

Quite pleased I managed to pick up a penny copy of his 1979 masterpiece on time. Worth £40 now, owzabout that then.

I didn't spot any, but apparently there were quick-response zombie Saviles at Hallowe'en parties on Saturday night. They must have looked a bit like this.

[Felicity, I guess so]

That's about that then...

He was a very keen/competitive cyclist in his youth, so I'm expecting Cycling Weekly to do an obit.

There was always a contradiction in my eyes between the 'charidee/humble lifestyle' stuff and the bling/cigars/Rolls Royce extravagance

[ian.64]

That's about that then...

I could never really warm to Savile. It wasn't really that I found anything creepy about him, but it was probably this forced 'character' persona he had (and there were plenty of ‘characters’ in the 70’s world of entertainment), an overstated style, with overdone gestures - outfits, cigar and all – that added up to an abrasive effect I didn’t really like all that much.

That said, he had his audience, he also – as the old phrase has it – brought joy to millions (okay, thousands), and pretty much earned his popularity unlike those in today’s ‘X-Factor/Britain’s Got Talent' culture who expect it from the moment they poke their spotty little faces into the camera.

An acquired taste, I suggest, but nontheless, RIP.

[MsD]

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The Ants on Jim'll Fix It, which some of you may enjoy.

Sir James of Savile is at the beginning and end.

[Stumpy Pepys]

That's about that then...

Well, to be objective, Jimmy Saville raised an awful lot of money for charity, was an enduring eccentric and a significant figure in the history of British pop and popular culture.

wingco wrote:

A lot of speculation about why he never married, his bizarrely close relationship with his mother and bandying of insinuations about his attitude to kids. I guess there was an enigmatic void in his life where healthy, conventional sexuality normally resides, and this has been filled with some pretty unpleasant, and so far as I know, unsubstantiated aspersions. Maybe there was simply nothing there.

I have trouble with the undercurrent here.

He was certainly eccentric; he was also very close to his mother and seemed to be averse to serious relationships with women (though there's plenty of stories that he wasn't averse to casual ones).

But that's enough to condemn someone as very weird and not-to-be-trusted? (I'm leaving out the lurid rumours, none of which seem to be based on any evidence at all.)

[Gangster Octopus]

That's about that then...

Some evidence?

[The Fox in the Snow]

That's about that then...

This is all very sad. The reaction to the alleged victims coming forward has been a bit disturbing, with rather too much focus on why they didn't come out sooner and too little on why it must have been difficult for them to do so.

There are also signs of a BBC cover-up. The binned Newsnight investigation as well as the apparent knowledge of Savile's indiscretions among colleagues is distressing, as is the accusation that two more, as yet unnamed, BBC 'stars' were caught indulging in such behaviour during the same period of time. What we are hearing now may be the tip of a large and terrible iceberg.

We have no 'proof' that Savile did any of the stuff he is accused of, of course. But we do have what would appear to be a rapidly growing body of evidence pointing in that direction. This is a man who did have friends in high places, and it may turn out to be the case that not only was he abusing young girls, but that he was allowed to do so.

[torres]

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He's a "right dodgy fucker". As my old Mum used to say about him.

[Wyatt Earp]

That's about that then...

If it really was an open secret at the BBC that Jimmy Savile was a nonce, that's a very shocking and distressing thing.

[Gangster Octopus]

That's about that then...

Yup. It reminds me of Reed's football team thingy in that sense.