Caroline Robinson - Jimmy Savile Victim
Sep 4, 2022

In the 1970s in the UK, there can be few names which were as synonymous with childrens television than Jimmy Savile. Savile same to fame via Radio Luxembourg and Tyne Tees Television, eventually appearing on the BBC radio and television networks. He was lauded by politicians and other celebrities for his ‘tireless’ charity work, but beneath the veneer of an eccentric show business DJ and philanthropist, lay a vicious and depraved pervert. Something which only came to wider public attention after his death.

Ed’s guest is Caroline Robinson, great niece to Savile. She tells how it was known what Savile was in the family, and she herself was victim to the abuse Savile dished out to others. Unlike others, though, Ms Robinson’s silence was bought by both Savile lavishing gifts and support on her and the wish not to have the association to someone so famous suddenly removed from her family. ‘It made me proud to tell others my Great Uncle was Jimmy Savile’ she said.

Following Savile’s passing in 2011, a sleuth of accusers – many unknown to each other – surfaced. Savile had allegedly sexually abused children in theatres, cars, private homes, BBC dressing rooms and almost no area was safe for him to be left alone with a child of either sex. His access to places like Broadmoor and Stoke Mandeville Hospital also gave suspicion that Savile may have abused patients and there is some evidence to suggest Savile indulged in necrophilia.

The legacy of filth lives on; did the BBC mandarins know about Savile? Was his presentation from a distant studio in Manchester a move to make staff feel safer whilst not acknowledging complicity?

This interview is about family. It’s about having a secret; but it’s also about how a slick, protected paedophile fooled a nation, how he betrayed parents, abused vulnerable and/or impressionable children and adults and how he was in plain sight all the time.

Books: In Plain Sight: The Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile Savile - The Beast: The Inside Story of the Greatest Scandal in TV History: Singing with "Iron Maiden" - the Drugs, the Groupies...the Whole Story Victim Zero: Jimmy Savile tried to ruin my life. I was the first victim to fight back.

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