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New Stage Play About Jimmy Savile and His Victims Opens in London

Tuesday, June 16, 2015 14:26
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21st Century Wire says…

A new stage play titled “An Audience With Jimmy Savile” has opened at Park Theatre in London. The play is billed as an ‘unsensational’ portrayal of a monster, but more importantly gives voice to his victims.

The Guardian writes:

The play consists of a dual narrative: one storyline concerns a This is Your Life-style retrospective, featuring Savile as its star guest; the other follows one of Savile’s victims as an adult confronting her memories of being raped as a 12-year-old. The scene in which the rape survivor, Lucy, tells police what happened to her is taken verbatim from an interview transcript given by a real-life victim.

Savile Detail
(Photo Credit: Helen Maybanks)

Jonathan Maitland, the play’s creator, has brought Savile back to life to be confronted for his crimes. Maitland is also a broadcast journalist, most recently as a correspondent for ITV’s Tonight programme.

“I just totally don’t view this as entertainment,” Maitland says. “I view it as a dramatic form of journalism … I felt an incredible responsibility to the victims not to cheapen or sensationalise their experience.”

McGowan as Savile
(Photo Credit: Helen Maybanks)

Alistair McGowan, British actor, comedian, and impressionist, plays the role of Jimmy Savile.

In The Guardian’s review, McGowan’s impersonation of Savile is described as “so uncannily and creepily powerful that when he first lopes on stage in turquoise metallic tracksuit, puffing on a cigar and hiding behind sunglasses of bloodshot pink, it causes a shocking frisson.”

This isn’t the first time the actor has delivered an impression of Savile in public. 21WIRE reported on a very odd sketch starring McGowan and Ronni Ancona that aired on the BBC’s “Big Impression” during Christmas 2000.

The sketch portrays American rapper Eminem writing obsessively to the BBC’s prolific pedophile in the hope of a ‘Fix-it’. McGowan’s performance (as Savile) was spooky enough to make us wonder if the actor was communicating a message about Savile at the time. Watch:


We haven’t seen the new stage play yet, but an obvious question would be how the BBC is portrayed in the story. It seems that everyone knew about at least some of the sordid practices of the late Sir Jimmy Savile OBE (knighted by the Queen, no less), but few dared speak it in public. It’s hard to believe the BBC itself had no leading role in a cover-up of this scale. By all accounts, it was an open secret within “The Industry”.

John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, then of Sex Pistols and PIL fame, conducted an interview circa late 1978, where he joked about people he’d like to kill and interestingly he quipped, “I’d like to kill Jimmy Savile”…

Listen to the excerpt of Lydon – as he issues a subtle warning about the true nature of the BBC’s monster-in-residence:


If you get a chance to see “An Audience With Jimmy Savile” in London, leave your review in the comments below. The play runs through July 11th.

More from The Guardian: 
An Audience With Jimmy Savile review – an obscene jester is brought to account
Audience with a monster: the pain of staging the cruel life of Jimmy Savile

READ MORE ABOUT JIMMY SAVILE AT: 21st Century Wire Savile Files

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21st Century Wire is an alternative news agency designed to enlighten, inform and educate readers about world events which are not always covered in the mainstream media.



Source: http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/06/16/new-stage-play-about-jimmy-savile-and-his-victims-opens-in-london/

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