I’m loathe to include this as ‘entertainment’ but is anyone watching? The dramatisation of Jimmy Savile’s decades of child and adult abuse.
I think Steve Coogan is playing a blinder, he embodies that fine line between creep and charming very well (I’m well aware there isn’t really a fine line and he is just a creep).
SSP because this is a very sad topic so please be mindful of that in replies.
Coogan is, indeed, sublime. His performance really captures the enigma of Saville’s malevolent charm and narcissism, and shows how his insidious influence was allowed to flourish unchecked. I like the inclusion of the interviews from the victims, too, as ultimately it’s their voices that should take centre stage.
He’s such a slimy bastard. Hateful. What I can’t grasp is why and how it got brushed under the carpet, to the extent that he was still revered at his death.
So many people knew the truth.
Also, all these other execs asking if he’d ever do ‘underage’ - when as we know now so many of them were up to it - I can’t genuinely believe that these would be lines of questioning at the time. But I have no idea as I wasn’t there
Feels a bit…weird that the BBC would dramatise that already. Can’t bring myself to watch it.
Yeah it’s a bit like ‘we will absolve ourselves of this by doing one docudrama’.
But then again there are so many who hide among us slash them - can’t mention any names but we all know who I mean
Coincidentally watched the Netflix documentary at the weekend not realising this was coming out this week. So much uncomfortable footage of him being creepy and even one shot of him surrounded by young people and delivering a piece to camera and the girl next to him is squirming and looking alarmed. Fucking sickening.
Have watched the first episode of The Reckoning so far, if it focuses on how he managed to get away with it all then I think it’ll be worthwhile. A bit different the BBC showing it I think than if it was a commercial broadcaster profiting from their own negligence.
Watching them in succession Coogan is less creepy and less charismatic than the real Savile but probably safer to underplay the role.
Coogan must have known for a while that he was born to play this role. Watched about ten minutes of it and it was even more uncomfortable watching than boiling point is.
Seeing David archer interviewing Alan partridge is going to stay with me
If it’s OK to say in an ssp thread then Coogan playing a baddie is always going to make me think of The Bureau from The Day Today
A Guardian piece with Susan, who is one of the victims interviewed in The Reckoning:
Watched the first two episodes and will watch the remaining ones. What was clear within the first couple of minutes was how brilliant Coogan’s portrayal is - we all knew he could do the voice but he has captured the mannerisms, the verbal tics, even the gait. And the way he flips from being the verbally agile clown to the depraved monster, like flicking a switch, demonstrates exceptional acting skills. Not sure I’ve seen him do anything like this before.
I’m not sure it says too much in addition to what we already know apart from some minor details which does beg the question of what was to be gained by making it. On that point, it probably gets a pass by the inclusion of the real victims talking to camera, reminding the viewer that this is about the victims as much as it is about the perpetrator.
Although it is being shown on the BBC, it isn’t actually a BBC production. It is an ITV Studios production I believe. I get why people think the BBC are perhaps a bit too involved in this story to even be broadcasting it though.
Think it’s to Coogan’s credit that even though he’s so well-known as Partridge, and that I really didn’t think I’d be able to get past that especially in the early scenes where he’s DJing, and yet he completely pulls it off.
The suddenness and the calculation behind those attacks against the women in episode 1 was really horrifying to watch, and seems to be quite accurate from what I know about Saville too.
They’re probably in a slightly can’t win situation in that if someone else did it they’d probably get shit for hiding again like they did with the initial allegations. I can see the uneasiness though, and the reluctance to watch it generally.
watched the first episode last night. maybe I just don’t watch much upsetting stuff, but found it hugely upsetting and difficult to watch. not really sure if I want to continue with it.
I think Coogan, a really familiar, ostensibly nice funny man, as Saville, really makes it hit in a powerful way, too.
Not sure i can handle it if they actually cover the extent of how bad he was and the people around him.
The all killa no filla 3 parter on him was…eye opening to say the least (shame they talked so bloody much at the start of each one).
Finished this last night. Coogan did very well, as everyone in this thread seems to say. What I found remarkable though is I got a sense of how much Coogan wanted the viewer to have no doubt that Saville was a very nasty man. Every lip curl, snarl, pitiful excuse was delivered with an aggression befitting of a sexual predator.
Struck me as an artistic choice rather than a characteristic that is faithfully imitated. I’m totally fine with it.
