People were taken aback by the frightening encounter between Steve Coogan and Jimmy Savile.
Historic clips of Savile’s interviews have emerged in light of the BBC’s four-part series The Reckoning’s broadcast.
The drama, starring Alan Partridge as Steve, explores the narrative of how, following Savile’s death in 2011, at the age of 84, it was revealed that he had been a persistent predator and sex offender.
While the controversial documentary depicts Coogan’s transformation into the discredited children’s entertainer, a disturbing video of the two together has recently surfaced.
Coogan, now 58, and Savile appeared on James Whale’s Talk Show in 1988.
That was the first time Coogan would ‘play’ Savile in an interview, performing an impersonation of him.
Putting on Savile’s chilling voice and accent, it’s almost difficult to tell which of the two men are speaking, as Savile himself praises: ‘That was turning the clock back to when I was first on the radio, my first week in showbiz with a very young Cliff Richard.’
‘How do you know I sounded like that then?’ he asks Coogan, who jokes: ‘Oh, the grapevine.’
The resurrected film, provided by Chuck Thomas of Talk TV, has startled viewers.
‘How scary that Steve Coogan impersonated Jimmy Savile and also was alongside him all those years ago,’ one said.
Another simply wrote: ‘That’s extraordinary.’
If you missed it…
Here is long lost footage of Steve Coogan meeting Jimmy Savile on James Whale in 1988.
During his first ever TV appearance, Coogan impersonates Savile, the man who 35 years later, he would be playing as a monster.@THEJamesWhale @virtualash #TheReckoning pic.twitter.com/M4Uhl4wWVc
— Chuck Thomas (@chuckthomasuk) October 16, 2023
The Reckoning generated anger from the moment it was announced, and the episodes that were published fueled even greater indignation.
However, in a recent Q&A, Coogan explained that the series had been two years in the making due to ‘diligent forensic application about trying to make sure all the right decisions are made’.
When it came to portraying Savile’s offences, he said there was ‘no right or wrong answer’, but that he felt a responsibility to share his ‘opinion about what the right thing to do is’.
‘There’s a tension between showing too much of Savile’s offences, and it being grotesque, or sugar-coating them, which is also wrong [as we won’t] see the horror of what he did,’ he said, as reported by The Independent.
He added they had to ‘strike that balance’ of not ‘upsetting survivors’ and not wanting to ‘anesthetise the full effect’.
The Reckoning is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
Source My Celebrity Life.