The BBC is set to release its controversial dramatisation of disgraced TV star Jimmy Savile’s life this evening.
The widely famous and once-beloved presenter was unveiled as one of the most prolific sex abusers in history within just a few years of his death.
Savile was one of the biggest TV stars in the UK from the 1960s to the 1990s, and he was known for TV shows such as Top of the Pops and Jim’ll Fix It.
But after his death in October 2011, aged 84, an ITV documentary revealed decades of horrific sexual abuse in which Savile had used his involvement in organisations such as charities, hospitals, prisons and the BBC, to abuse hundreds of vulnerable young girls and boys.
After a short time in hospital, Savile died at his penthouse home in Roundhay, Leeds, on October 29, 2011.
He died two days before his 85th birthday. In an interview shortly before he died, Savile said: “I’ve got a bounce back-ability, but this time I don’t seem to be bouncing back.”
In the same discussion, he replied to a question about turning 85: “So many women, so little time.” He continued smoking cigars until his final hours.
Savile died of pneumonia. His nephew Roger Foster confirming at the time that the paedophile had “passed away quietly in his sleep during the night.”
He was buried at Woodlands Cemetery in Scarborough at a 45-degree angle at his request, so that he could “have a view of the sea”.
His £4,000 headstone – which read “it was good while it lasted” – was removed by his family after the horrific allegations about his past emerged.
It also reportedly featured the predator smiling and giving a double thumbs up, and was unveiled on September 20, 2012 – 10 months after his death.
But it was also less than a fortnight before ITV unmasked the entertainer as a serial predator and paedophile.
After the revelations came to light, the gravestone was removed under police surveilance. But proposals to exhume Savile’s body and have it cremated were never approved.
So his burial plot still remains – just as an unmarked grave.
Savile’s career of horror
By now it is estimated that Savile preyed on as many as 500 vulnerable victims. Some were as young as two years old.
The first recorded incident of abuse occurred in Manchester in 1955, when he was the manager of a dance hall.
There were also investigations into his conduct in NHS hospitals, including Leeds General Infirmary – where he worked as a porter – and Stoke Mandeville hospital, where he volunteered.
It is alleged that while there he sexually assaulted more than 60 staff and patients aged between five and 75 at these hospitals.
