Business News Obituaries

Jimmy Savile dies

By | Published on Monday 31 October 2011

Jimmy Savile

Tributes poured in for DJ, TV presenter and charity fund-raiser Jimmy Savile this weekend, after he died just two days before his 85th birthday.

Although probably best known for presenting TV shows ‘Top Of The Pops’ and ‘Jim’ll Fix It’, Savile also played an important role in the development of the modern clubbing scene as one of the first promoters to recognise that the youth of the late 1940s and early 1950s were more excited about dancing to recorded music than live bands.

He often recalled how technicians expressed surprise when he first asked for record decks to be put on stage rather than at the back of a venue, and again when he requested two turntables, so songs could be played truly back to back. Bosses for the Mecca Leisure Group for whom Savile had started working quickly spotted the eccentric DJ from Leeds was onto something, and at one point had him overseeing club nights all over the country.

It was while DJing in Manchester that Savile was first spotted by the TV cameras, and soon after his career in broadcasting began. He became a radio DJ, firstly for Radio Luxembourg and later BBC Radio 1, before TV work followed. He was the first presenter of the iconic BBC music show ‘Top Of The Pops’ in 1964, which he continued to front for another 20 years, subsequently returning on occasion to mark the show’s various landmarks, including its final edition in 2006.

Despite all his connections with the music world, it was probably another TV venture that made Savile one of the most famous faces in Britain: Saturday night kids show ‘Jim’ll Fix It’, which launched in 1974 and he also fronted for 20 years.

It was during this period that Savile – now associated with making dreams come true on TV – also became known for his charity work off screen, especially the numerous sponsored marathons he ran. It’s estimated that Savile raised over £40 million for various charities over the years, nearly half of that for the spinal unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Savile having suffered back injuries himself earlier in his life when working down the mines during the Second World War. As well as using his celebrity to raise millions for charity, Savile also donated his time by helping out at some of the organisations he supported.

His consistently cheerful demeanour, eccentric appearance, feel-good output and regular charity work assured Savile the status of national treasure among the British population, though many were also curious about the man behind the persona. A famously private man who never married, who never hired an agent or PA, who had few, if any, close friends, and who seemed to be as eccentric in real life as he was on screen, many wondered what made this “loner” tick. Savile insisted that while he was “unusual”, he was a very happy man, happy to be known by so many, and happy to have the time to support charitable organisations.

Documentary maker Louis Theroux attempted to discover the real Savile in one of his most famous programmes, 2000’s ‘When Louis Met Jimmy’. The programme mainly confirmed that Savile was a little odd but seemingly very happy with life. Paying tribute to Savile in The People yesterday, Theroux wrote: “My director, Will Yapp, and I stayed in touch with Jimmy long after we’d finished the filming. For several years we’d travel up for an overnight visit to see him once a year or so. We’d go out to the Flying Pizza restaurant with a camera and videotape Jimmy as he presided over birthdays with a kind of papal celebrity. But the camera didn’t have tape in it, as Jimmy himself knew. He just enjoyed the idea that everyone there thought they were being filmed and the sense of occasion it created. There won’t be another like him”.

Other former colleagues paid tribute yesterday. Fellow Radio 1 alumnus David Hamilton told 5Live: “We were together at Radio 1 in the 70s and the station was full of eccentric personalities, but he was certainly the most flamboyant of all. One of the essential things about Jimmy was that he was a man of the people. He knew his audience, he was very much in touch with his audience. I think the public were his family. Probably of all the DJs I worked with, I knew him less than any of the others. He kept himself very much to himself. He didn’t drink so he wasn’t the sort of man who would go down to the pub and have a bevvy with you”.

Speaking for the radio industry, to which Savile was probably most closely associated, the Radio Academy’s John Myers told reporters: “The sad death of Sir Jimmy Savile represents a great loss to the UK radio industry. He was one of the pioneers of modern pop-music radio. He made the smooth transfer from Radio Luxembourg to the BBC in the late 1960s and from 1997 moved his broadcasts to commercial radio where he continued to be successful and well respected by radio audiences around the UK. The UK radio industry meets for its annual festival in Salford next week. He will be fondly remembered and his death will be marked at a special session on Tuesday morning”.

Although it’s not 100% certain how Savile died on Saturday, he had been in hospital recently with a suspected bout of pneumonia. One of his nephews told reporters on Saturday: “It is with deep sadness that I can tell you that our uncle, Sir Jimmy Savile passed away quietly in his sleep during the night. Jimmy will be sadly missed by very many people. We would like to thank the people who have already offered us their condolences”.



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