It’s now exactly a year since ITV first broadcast ‘Exposure: The Other side of Jimmy Savile’. None of us who worked on the programme could have imagined the impact the programme would have.
It generated enormous media coverage (more than 40 days worth of front page leads), lead to a nationally coordinated police investigation (with 450 victims and counting) and led to a doubling of calls to the NSPCC.
Off the back of the revelations the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition called for inquiries, the Department of Health launched an investigation and the BBC, Savile’s long time employer, eventually launched several of their own.
It was in late 2011 that former detective Mark Williams-Thomas first told me of rumours about Savile. His role as a consultant on the aborted Newsnight report about Savile is well documented.
In early 2012 we started our own investigation into Savile for ITV – our fifth programme together for the broadcaster.
Using Mark’s well-honed investigation skills we spent six months winning the trust and confidence of victims and by the time of transmission we had five women giving evidence that the ‘Top of the Pops’ and ‘Jim’ll Fix It’ star sexually assaulted them while they were aged under 16.
One claimed she was raped by Savile, another said she was asked to perform a sex act on him, and others claim they were groomed and indecently assaulted by him. One said she had spoken out now, only following his death in 2011, because she was too frightened to do so while he was alive.
Other witnesses, including BBC staff who worked with him, gave accounts of the times they had seen Savile with underage girls – sometimes in compromising positions. And in a recording obtained by the programme, Savile also appeared to defend convicted paedophile Gary Glitter.
Making the programme was an emotional experience for all of us. Hearing women telling their stories of abuse for the first time was heartbreaking. You cannot help but be emotionally invested when you hear such accounts.
The feedback following transmission was incredibly satisfying professionally. One commentator said the programme was ‘a sensation, without being sensationalist’. That was a credit to the whole team involved - our Exec Alexander Gardiner, AP Rebecca Hoggarth, cameraman Nigel Fairburn and editor Paul Hudson.
But nothing can compare to the feedback from professionals working in the area of child sex abuse. Just this week I received the following email from the NSPCC.
‘Well if ever you’re having a bad day you can remind yourself that our most conservative estimate is that at least 1000 additional children have been protected as a result of calls inspired by the Savile story. That’s 1000 children who are no longer being sexually abused because that documentary got made.’
Exposure: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile (ITV Studios) is nominated for Best Documentary on Current Affairs at The Grierson British Documentray Awards 2013. Director/Producer Lesley Gardiner.
