Yahoo Finance The Reckoning: Steve Coogan hopes Jimmy Savlle drama will prevent abuse from 'happening again'
Steve Coogan says he overcame his “trepidation” about playing Jimmy Savile in a new BBC drama, explaining that he hopes The Reckoning will go some way towards preventing something similar happening again.
The Alan Partridge actor plays the disgraced presenter in the four-part series that explores how Saville hid being a serial child abuser from the public eye.
The series has been criticised by some commentators for “capitalising” on the story despite the BBC being responsible for propelling Saville to fame with the TV shows Jim’ll Fix It and Top of the Pops.
“I had great trepidation about it, obviously,” Coogan told press after a screening of The Reckoning.
“I knew there was the potential for catastrophic failure if you get it wrong, but that's not a reason not to do it. And I felt comfortable that it was being made for the right reasons.”
I knew there was the potential for catastrophic failure if you get it wrong, but that's not a reason not to do itSteve Coogan
Coogan recalled writing his Oscar-nominated script for Philomena, which received pushback from the Catholic Church for dealing with how unwed mothers were historically forced to give up their children for adoption.
“There’s an element of not wanting to rake over old coals, and there's a parallel there with this, which is that [you get a] kind of scrutiny with drama that you don't get with a documentary.
“[With a drama] you could get under the skin of Jimmy Savile. The reason that's a good thing to do, to bring him to life again, is to learn about how these things happened to stop that happening again…
"You illuminate things that you can't with witness testimony or public inquiries.”
Neil McKay, the series’ writer and one of its executive producers, said that he spoke to dozens of Saville’s victims, four of whom appear in the series and supported its creation.
“It's that which always stiffened my resolve [in making] a thing like this,” he said.
McKay revealed that one of the people portrayed in the series, a witness to Saville’s abuse, died before the series was released, but told him: “I hope I live to see this and I hope to see justice done, because we didn't get that. Nobody got that.”
He added how he hopes the series stops this from happening again. “Saville-like creatures can and will come along again,” McKay said.
“It's important that we do everything we can to spot it as soon as we can, that people feel they can come forward safely and speak about it. What we've tried to do, I think, is just say, ‘Look, it can be there.’”
The Reckoning starts on BBC One on Monday, 9 October, 9pm, with all episodes available the same day on BBC iPlayer.
