Netflix’s new documentary about Jimmy Savile and his crimes is that rarest of things for the streaming service – too short.
Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story runs for two episodes – and just shy of three hours – but it wasn’t until the final 40 minutes that we heard from one of his victims.
The first episode rightly spends most of its time acquainting viewers (probably foreign Netflix customers) with Savile’s giant impact on British life, from his TV and radio programmes to his prolific charity efforts, before digging into why he got away with his crimes for six decades.
But I just wish there was a bit more time to examine the difficult questions it brought up, such as the role of the police in downplaying allegations against him and how Savile’s trusted position within the British establishment meant he could hide within plain sight.
One thing that shocked me after watching the wealth of old footage of Savile was how frequently he himself actually alluded to his dark side.
It was always hedged as a joke, of course (“My case comes up next Thursday”, was a line he deployed on multiple occasions) but his Catholic upbringing meant he was acutely aware of doing good – his charity work – to balance out all the bad so he’d get through the gates of heaven.
When Savile’s body was found in his Leeds bachelor pad, he had apparently died with his fingers crossed.
Aside from a scene where a journalist pins old photographs of Savile through the years to an empty warehouse wall for no reason, A British Horror Story stayed well away from the typical cliches of a Netflix crime documentary, which was a good thing.
Even though it didn’t scratch quite as far beneath the surface as I would have liked, the story of Savile still has the power to shock and appal after all these years.