The Louis Theroux: Savile doc

Thoughts?

It was obviously a harrowing watch, and seeing all the footage and the testimonies brought home the extent of Savile’s crimes, which I don’t think really happened before. You read about these things but there’s a distance. Hopefully it’ll make viewers/the media re evaluate how we respond to and report on this kind of abuse. I found it pretty humbling.

It also made me think about the meta aspect of it though. I think Theroux was pretty duped by Savile in the first doc. I think this doc is pretty interesting for how he now represents himself, and what this doc’s aim is.

I’m a fan of Theroux, although I’ve seen people call him disingenuous and manipulative (which I kind of agree with in a way but not fully-I think this is what makes him interesting and why he’s successful at what he does). There’s a strange tension running through it in that he’s reporting on something serious that he was involved in, and yet it makes for a good documentary. He is a documentary maker and this is prime documentary material. There were times in the doc where it did seem to be as much about his guilt/repentance as the actual victims. Not saying this is wrong exactly- I think he is acting in good faith, but he’s also making a doc.

I just find it interesting because he is also a personality, someone viewers respect and feel attached to- it has an added dimension, rather than simply a doc about Savile.

Wrote this at 2am so it’s probably garbled nonsense, sorry.

Mixed feelings on it really, thought it was really interesting from the point of view of exploring his own role in it all with the documentary but framing it against the backdrop of the victims and kind of hinting at the parallels between the experience felt a bit uncomfortable to me?

Was fascinating.

Part of the narrative was whether Louis should have done more to challenge him in the original documentary, but really i feel he has nothing to feel guilty about.

A lot of people on twitter were like ‘its obvious looking back - you could tell he was a bit creepy and weird’ - but im not sure that’s a helpful attitude. It’s not evidence.

Harrowing, uncomfortable interviews with some of the victims :frowning:

This was a tough watch. You don’t want to describe it as “great telly, banging stuff” because it’s in the type of thing that blurs the line between entertainment and the utterly fucking horrific. Hard not to feel intensely angry and sad throughout.

I do think Louis Theroux was being too hard on himself at times, but obviously that’s what helped make the documentary so interesting.

The group I watched it in had a long (almost heated) chat about two of the women interviewed, the one that denies the allegations, and the other one who accepts he was a paedophile and rapist but she only focuses on the good things he does. Some of us thinking they were selfish and ignorant, others thinking their way of “protecting their memories” (for lack of a better term) was understandable.

Yeah, I was kind of on the side of the latter point of view there, it’s easy to sit and vilify them and say they were in denial or whatever but they’re just another form of victim, it’s a completely understandable coping tactic IMO.

Thought that small bit of footage where Savile didn’t know he was on camera and was talking about his club days was really fascinating. Just showed how, when he was playing to an audience, he played up the eccentricities, the weird catch phrases, the funny faces, to appear like he wasn’t quite all there, but then behind the scenes, he was fully compos mentis and just a massive, massive cunt.

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was good.
generally struck by how much savile pushed the line in public and how nobody seemed to challenge him about it, e.g. the footage of him turning up to louis’s office in a vest and saying the creepy stuff to those women, don’t think that was shown in the original doc.
other than speaking to the woman from the hospital near the end it didn’t really acknowledge the fact that there must have been hundreds of people he worked with who knew to some extent what he was doing and didn’t say anything, would be interested in watching something that held them to account more, guess that’s not really louis’s style though

I thought the woman at the end was a better interviewer of Louis than Louis was of everyone else

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yes. the bit where it switched round and she started quizzing him was really interesting

where can I watch this?

iPlayer I’d imagine

I, Player?

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@Aggpass anywhere without a TV license?

Just click the thing that says you have a license, if you’re only doing it for this. I’m sure the men in the van won’t come round and do you in.

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the TV detector man actually turned up on Saturday as the flat’s previous tenant’s license just expired, hence why I’m a bit edgy :wink: it looked a bit like this:

haven’t seen the last 15 minutes because I decided to go to bed. I was uncomfortable with louis pressing interviewees on their guilt.

ah man that cuts out before Bastard falls through the hole in the roof

read this as a reply to foppyish and had a bit of a guiltlol

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:joy: lovely stuff

Definitely guilty.