True-Crime documentaries have become extremely popular over the last decade or so. This is in large part thanks to streaming services like Netflix. One of Netflix’s upcoming docuseries is Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story which premieres April 6, 2022. To promote the release, the streamer just dropped a new trailer for the series. The synopsis for the series is as follows:
Jimmy Savile was one of the United Kingdom’s most beloved TV personalities. Shortly after his death in 2011, an investigation prompted more than 450 horrific allegations of sexual assault and abuse, with victims as young as 5. The documentary examines, through extensive archive footage, the evil within Jimmy and delves into how he managed to fool an entire nation for four decades.
The trailer summarizes this description by starting off by showing Jimmy Savile in the early stages of his career soaking up his fame before transitioning into the myth of his persona. “ As a child you just thought, ‘This guy can make things happen’,” says one of the people being interviewed for the series as the trailer shows clips of Savile on his popular TV series Jim’ll Fix It. The trailer then transitions into showing how connected Savile was with pictures of him with The Beatles and footage of him with Prince Charles congratulating the TV star on his fundraising contributions. There are also clips of Savile with Princess Diana and what appears to be Savile in the Vatican.
This is where the trailer takes a turn with footage of Savile getting annoyed at a children’s drawing of him depicted as a monster. The unsettling clip is accompanied by Savile saying, “that is supposed to be me? What did I ever do to you that you would draw that picture of me?” We then see more clips of Savile being an “upstanding citizen” with another voice-over saying, “he knew fame and power gave him every door.” A clip is then shown of him talking about his charity work before a person being interviewed on camera says, “it turns out everywhere he has been, there’s been abuse.” This is accompanied by an eerie image of an innocent little girl.
The final part of the trailer shows us more contrasting clips of Savile’s persona and who he really was. We hear radio snippets of him getting knighted by the Queen paired with footage of the hearings that followed his seemingly endless allegations. One of the final lines spoken by Savile in the trailer is,“ I’m not in your world. I’m not constrained by anything.”
Savile was one of the most popular TV personalities in British history. He started off as a DJ before getting into radio. Eventually, Savile hit it big on television with shows like Top of the Pops and the previously mentioned Jim’ll Fix It. The latter of which saw Savile granting the wishes of his viewers. His audience was mostly children, and it was geared towards that demographic. Later it would be learned that many of his sexual abuse allegations stemmed from this program. Later he would be deemed a predatory sexual offender.
Many sexual abuse scandals like Harvey Weinstein have come into the light in recent years thanks to the #metoo movement, but rarely do you see a person with over 400 allegations against him. Savile contributed so much to charity over the years, but like this disturbing trailer reveals to the world, that was just a front for something much darker. Savile was mainly just a British superstar, but for comparison's sake, this is like if someone on the scale of a Mr. Rogers had these kinds of allegations against him. He was beloved by many and, due to his many Royal connections, had a lot of power.
It is a tragic cautionary tale about idolizing celebrities, the corrupting power we can give them, and the disgusting secrets that fame can hide. Savile died in 2011 before he could face many of these shameful allegations, but this docuseries looks to expose him to the world as the monster he is. Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story premieres on Netflix on April 6, 2022. You can watch the full trailer for the docuseries below.