LIKE every single child in Britain in the early 1980s I was desperate to be on Jim’ll Fix It.
So of course I wrote a Dear Jim letter to the croaky old cigar-muncher informing him that I had just the madcap adventure that he should fix for me and turn into some scintillating telly.
News Group Newspapers LtdJimmy Savile was revealed to have been a prolific abuser shortly after his death[/caption]
PA:Press AssociationHe was famous for his TV work including Jim’ll Fix It[/caption]
News Group Newspapers LtdColin spent a day with the TV host back in 2007 before his crimes came to light[/caption]
News Group Newspapers LtdSavile requested he be driven about in a pink Rolls-Royce during the day[/caption]
I never heard back.
My letter was not, as the famous jingle went, “only the start of it”. It was the soul-crushing end.
My dream of watching golden eagles fly in the Scottish Highlands – a wish described as “far too boring for TV” by, er, my own mother – sadly remains unfulfilled.
Meh, his loss, I thought as I licked my wounds and went back to building my Lego Space Station.
Little did I know that 25 years later, it would be ME fixing it for Jim.
And it would prove to be an encounter that would come back to haunt me.
This month marks 13 years since the first allegations about Savile’s disgraceful behaviour were made.
As the shocking details finally came to light, some of the things he told me that day took on a terrifying new significance.
I met Savile on a perfect Spring morning back in April 2007.
He was bringing back his famous show for the UK Gold channel, revisiting some of his greatest fixes and doing a few new ones for good measure.
As The Sun’s then-TV Editor, I decided a great way to add some extra razzmatazz to the interview I’d been offered would be to turn the tables and fix something for Jim.
He loved the idea and quickly reeled off not one but three requests – to meet our famous Page 3 girls, visit his favourite cigar shop in Mayfair… and be driven about in a pink Rolls-Royce.
As he told me that day over a cup of tea at his local cafe in Central London: “I used to get people coming up to me and saying, ‘Oi, Jimmy, you nearly ran me over the other day in your pink Roller.’
“I’ve had 17 Rollers in my life but never had a pink one.”
So a pink Roller I arranged, secured from a bloke in Brighton who used it for charity events.
Bitter and twisted
The fix went fairly smoothly for most of the day, despite him being mobbed by well wishers wherever he went, something he clearly enjoyed, stopping to talk to almost everyone.
Of course, he was very happy to see the Page 3 girls – Sam and Rhian – and was quick to greet them with a “cuddle”.
But they didn’t seem too fussed. Just another dirty old man, I imagine they thought, goes with the territory.
AlamySavile used his fame to keep his victims silent[/caption]
GettyHe was known for his tracksuits and constant cigar smoking[/caption]
It was while we were being driven along in the back of the Roller that I got to see a different side of the man who would later be revealed as one of Britain’s most prolific paedophiles and sex attackers with more than 400 victims.
Despite his gregarious nature and endless TV and charity endeavours, this self-styled “man of the people” didn’t seem to like other humans very much.
He moaned about the “smart c***s” running television, “university types who think to be successful you’ve got to make your pals in the pub laugh”.
Predator’s free pass
He reckoned his shows never featured anyone because they’d make “good telly” and simply relied on natural reactions to make it work.
“If I liked their letter, we got them on. Simple as that. And if they clam up when the camera is on them and say nowt – then that’s TV gold because it’s a real reaction,” he insisted.
“TV now is full of stage school kids and show-offs and no one cares whether it’s fake or not.
“They know exactly how they want the show to go and bugger anyone who gets in the way of that.”
I thought then that he had a point – I still do – but his delivery suggested a man who was not at ease with the way the world was changing.
Getty Images – GettySavile, pictured with PM Margaret Thatcher in 1980, made sure to surround himself with influential people[/caption]
AlamyHe hid behind charity work to present himself as a upstanding citizen[/caption]
Savile was losing his grip on something he thought he knew better than anyone else.
An industry – and country – so in thrall to his peculiar brand of “authenticity” that they let him get away with the most wicked behaviour.
Knowing what we know now, it was clear he did not like to be challenged.
He wanted to be left alone, his appalling behaviours overlooked by those who feared his wrath.
And ignored he was. By TV producers, executives, senior figures in the charity and healthcare sectors and even the police, who admitted bungling many chances to stop him.
All gave him a pass, enabling him to indulge his depraved desires.
Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, I feel he gave me a strong hint of the menace he was capable of during that conversation in the back of the pink Rolls-Royce.
The mask slips
But no sooner had he slagged off another “useless” TV executive, suddenly we had a problem. The fix was in trouble.
As we approached the Davidoff cigar shop where “Sir” Jimmy would soon help himself to freebies, the Roller conked out.
“What the f*** has gone on here?” he barked in his distinct Yorkshire accent. “I need to get to my home as I have a very important appointment later.”
The AA had been called but it was clear that getting Savile back to his flat opposite in Regent’s Park, a stone’s throw from the BBC, in time for whatever it was he had to turn around and go back out for was going to be problematic.
PA:Press AssociationSavile’s carefully constructed mask started to slip when the pink Rolls-Royce broke down[/caption]
RedfernsAfter Savile’s death his victims started to come forward about his horrifying abuse[/caption]
“Where do you need to be?” I asked him, wondering if we should just hail a black cab and take him directly to his next “very important appointment”.
“Never you mind, young man,” he replied. “Just get me back to Park Crescent if you would be so kind.”
That “if you would be so kind” was laced with a casual aggression that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
I quickly hailed a cab. I had all the elements of the fix done so the piece I was due to write was essentially in the bag.
Now I just had the problem of getting an increasingly irate 80-year-old back to his flat so he could change out of his garish tracksuit and head off to somewhere pressing but still unknown.
Had he been off to abuse people the night I left him?
Colin Robertson
Once he was in the back of the cab, he beckoned me over: “You’ll be paying for this, so get in!”
I happily jumped in, keen to get some extra quotes to pad out the feature I would write later that evening.
“Right, let’s hope this gentleman knows his Knowledge,” he announced theatrically, referencing London cabbies’ famous internal sat nav.
On the short ride through the heaving London traffic he finally told me why he had to get back so promptly.
He was booked in for a night shift at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, where he would “meet and greet” patients and staff, something he regularly did.
“What I do there is more of what you’ve seen me do today — talk to people, make them feel happy,” he explained.
“It’s what I love to do, it’s my job, you see. And you know what? I’ve got the best job in the world.”
Horrifying realisation
PA:Press AssociationMany of Savile’s victims were in Stoke Mandeville Hospital where he volunteered[/caption]
Years later I would learn that his “job” at Stoke Mandeville was in fact one of the most sinister outlets for his depravity.
For it was at the Buckinghamshire hospital where he was regarded as a “sex pest” and where he would abuse more than 60 people including some patients as young as 11.
His victims included “patients, staff, visitors, volunteers and charity fundraisers” – with almost half aged under 16 and 10 under the age of 12, a report would later find.
Savile was found to have been given “virtually unrestricted access” to the hospital during the 70s and 80s and numerous complaints were made against him.
Again, nothing was done and he was still given access right up until he died.
Some of his alleged crimes at the hospital beggar belief and are simply too disgusting to talk about here.
I thought a lot about our encounter when an independent report into this twisted monster’s serial abusing was released in 2015.
Had he been off to abuse people the night I left him?
Perhaps I would have ended up as another victim of this warped paedophile’s horrifying addiction to abuse. I shudder to think.
Colin Robertson
Indeed, was it his access to wards and wards of vulnerable people to abuse that made it, in his own words, “the greatest job in the world”?
Just thinking about it makes me want to vomit.
While I’ll admit I found him fascinating, I didn’t much like Jimmy Savile.
His jokes were unsavoury – and unfunny – and his extraordinarily high opinion of himself coloured everything about him.
He wanted you to know it was his world and we were all just lucky to be living in it. His tantrum at the end seemed typical of a man who lived alone and by his own rules.
But he was past his sell by date and he knew it. He was a spent force, a creepy throwback to a time when kids were still pretty much seen and not heard.
Yes, he still had the adoration of the public – “I have 60 million friends”, he told me – but TV had had enough of him.
GettySavile is thought to have abused hundreds of children, including some as young as eleven[/caption]
News Group Newspapers LtdHe first rose to fame as DJ before moving into television presenting[/caption]
His show, Jim’ll Fix It Strikes Again, the reason for our meeting, would be the last one he ever made.
He died four years later, still, to the public at large – and most importantly in his mind – a hero. The man who made dreams come true – and made millions for charity.
It was not until a year after his death that we would learn the true extent of his horrors and he would gain a new reputation as one of the most prolific sexual predators the world has ever seen.
I am glad Jim never fixed it for me. Perhaps I would have ended up as another victim of this warped paedophile’s horrifying addiction to abuse. I shudder to think.
Shortly after he died, before he was exposed as the monster we now know him to be, his estate organised an auction of his stuff.
I was browsing through the various lots – from his trademark tracksuits to cigar boxes and marathon vests – when I came upon something from our day together.
It was the ‘The Sun Fixed It For Me’ medallion I had had made up for him, that the Page 3 girls had bestowed upon him as he gripped their waists with his cigar-stained talons.
I was tempted to buy it back for a wacky souvenir of a very odd day, but quickly forgot about it.
Forgetting about him, though, has not proven as easy.
Savile used his fame to get access to people he could prey onGetty Images – Getty Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
