Benny Hill was deeply, deeply, deeply weird. He did the same ‘shrine to his dead mother’ thing as Savile. Shades of the Bates Motel?

The UK at that time had a strong tradition of ‘camp’ entertainers, extending from earlier music-hall and pantomime traditions. People like Larry Grayson, John Inman, the vicar in ‘Dad’s Army’. This tradition exteneds to the present day, with entertainers like Graham Norton.

What this may mean is that the culture of the entertainment world in the UK at that time was already distinctly different form the maninstream, and this may have made Savile’s affect significantly less-unusual in the circles in which he moved.

llater,

llamas

Bad taste in clothes and a ghastly personae do not a paedophile make.

When our Samizdata host J.P. shuffles off this mortal coil and like our metaphorical Monty Python Parrot “joins the choir invisible”, those of us who have read his works and know him will proclaim him as a libertarian and freedom fighter.

However, those who are our enemies, in the BBC and other state and liberal institutions might characterise J.P. as an anarchist, iconoclast and enemy of the state.

The dead can serve no writs and what court will hear the witness of the dead save in a cause supported by the state itself.

Although I personally thought Savile a grotesque caricature with little actual personality or talent, any charges that were to be made should have been made during his lifetime such that he could defend them and IF FOUND GUILTY punished for them.

If his charity / celebrity / knighthood / status prevented or delayed such an action then heads should roll and prosecutions under “perversion of the course of justice” seriously considered.

As it is we will probably see little more than the sanction of mid-level BBC and NHS employees dismissed with full pensions.

Prosecutions will be unlikely to succeed given the alleged nature of the offences and the time passed.

Just to play devil’s advocate, though, even a large private organisation, such as a big firm, could presumably have such creeps working for it and they could get away with things for quite a long period of time. I am sure it has happened. The issue is what happens when said creeps are exposed.

Partly this is a culture thing. In the 1970s and early 80s, there were a whole crop of these oddballs working in things such as radio and mass entertainment shows. I suspect there is more of this to come out.

But Tom Paine’s right. Any privately-owned media organization that had allowed pederasts to work with children for decades would be toast. But this time next year, the BBC will still be extorting money from TV viewers, posing as “the envy of the world”, as if nothing had happened.

As to this issue, there might have been a self serving cover up over the last few months when the Newsnight people were looking for permission to go ahead but back in the day when Savile was active, he was (as his colleague Paul Gambacini has said) hiding in plain sight. As people have commented here, it was the common view that he was a rum cove, everyone knew this, not just the BBC but why did no one do anything of significance?

If this sounds like a defence of the BBC it isn’t meant to be but there’s more than enough blame to go around over this issue and it’s more than the easy targets like the BBC and NHS who deserve to account for themselves.

“the BBC and the NHS are still regarded as splendid institutions”.

Yes this is the dreadful thing.

They have become part of “British idenity”.

Which mean that, in this imporant respect, “British idenity” has become a bad thing.

Jimmy started off in clubs in Manchester in the late 50s. There he became very well connected to some of Manchester’s biggest crime families. If you pissed him off for any reason, large gentlemen well aquainted with fractured limbs were liable to call on you unexpectedly.

And like Johnathan, as a kid, the first time I laid eyes on Savile, when Top of The Pops started in the 60s, I knew that there was something deeply dodgy about him. How someone as seemingly talentless and buffoonish got the job was what first occured to me.

I got the same vibe the first time I saw Johnathan King and Gary Glitter too.

Precisley, and this is a general point.

State schools serve the state, not the pupils and their parents.

The NHS serves the state, not its patients.

And so on.

What Paine says about the survival of an organisation requiring it to please the customers, and if it doesn’t have to please the customers it becomes increasingly self-serving and dictatorial, should be obvious to anyone.
That it is not is an indication as to how far the current mindset (meta-context) has drifted, or been pushed, from reality.