Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story was released to Netflix on Wednesday and the investigation into how the television personality's crimes of sex abuse and paedophilia were able to perpetuate for decades has left many viewers feeling seriously unsettled.
‘It truly is a horror, the signs were there but no one did anything about it,’ wrote one viewer. ‘Feeling queasy,’ added another. ‘He was literally telling the world who he really was, and no one picked up on it because the philanthropic work was a smokescreen.’
Savile, who was knighted by the Queen, had links to many powerful people (including Margaret Thatcher) thanks to his well-documented charity work and successful broadcasting career. And many viewers were shocked when the show seemingly revealed Savile’s friendship with Prince Charles.
According to the Netflix documentary, the Prince of Wales was sent suggestions of how to approach his speeches and major public incidents by the later-disgraced BBC presenter: ‘You are so good at understanding what makes people operate and wonderfully sceptical and practical,’ Charles wrote to Savile in 1990. ‘Can you cast an eye over this draft and let me know how we can best appeal to people on this score?’
Later in 1991, Charles then thanked Savile for help writing a speech and said: ‘It really was extremely good of you to take the trouble to put together those splendid notes and they provided me with considerable food for thought. With renewed and heartfelt thanks. Yours ever, Charles.’
In the documentary, the letters were shown by a Savile biographer called Alison Bellamy who described Savile as an ‘informal chief advisor’ to Charles at the time. Savile gave Charles advice on how to react to the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 and recommended the Queen was given a warning of any other royal family member’s proposed actions.
Charles later wrote back to Savile: ‘I attach a copy of my memo on disasters which incorporates your points and which I showed to my father, and he showed to Her Majesty.’
The makers of the documentary have since told The Times that Savile produced a PR handbook for royals and their staff and that some of that advice was also incorporated into a note for the Queen.
The Prince of Wales also recommended that Savile should meet his sister-in-law the Duchess of York, who could use ‘some of your straightforward common sense’. However, despite regularly seeking advice from Savile, there’s no suggestion that the Prince Of Wales knew about the broadcaster's crimes.
Clarence House is yet to make a comment about the documentary.
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