When Louis Met... Jimmy

Louis Theroux:
Were you that keen and excited to be involved in this project?

Jimmy Savile:
Yes, yes.

Louis Theroux:
Why?

Jimmy Savile:
I don't know, I don't know. But I quite like the idea of it. Because I'm odd, you're different, that's not a bad double. Between us we should be able to do something.

[Louis goes to meet Jimmy Savile at his penthouse flat in Leeds]

Jimmy Savile:
[peering through his front door letterbox] Hello? Who is it?

Louis Theroux:
[kneeling down to look through the letterbox] Jimmy, how's it going? Can we come in?

Jimmy Savile:
I don't believe you exist.

[he opens the door]

Louis Theroux:
[shaking hands with Jimmy] How's it going? Good to meet you.

Jimmy Savile:
You're better looking than me, you'll have to go. Anybody better looking than me, that's it. Step this way.

Louis Theroux:
How you feeling?

Jimmy Savile:
Regularly. How are you?

Louis Theroux:
Not too bad.

Jimmy Savile:
Marvelous. I'm like a butcher's dog, as it happens, and there's nothing more fitter and stronger than a butcher's dog. All the scraps, all the bones, all the hair... Mmm! That's it.

Louis Theroux:
Do you live here on your own?

Jimmy Savile:
Yes!

Louis Theroux:
So you don't have a wife and family?

Jimmy Savile:
No. None whatsoever. I leave that to other people.

Louis Theroux:
Why?

Jimmy Savile:
Haven't the faintest idea. I don't know. But I do like the idea of getting up in the morning with just me to look after and going to bed at night and not having any brain damage.

Louis Theroux:
Why would you have brain damage?

Jimmy Savile:
Because, the girls I know specialize in brain damage. Wonderful, that's what makes them interesting...

Louis Theroux:
What does that mean? I don't understand what that means.

Jimmy Savile:
Well, they drive me potty.

Louis Theroux:
Really?

Jimmy Savile:
Oooh, aye!

[Jimmy is showing Louis his kitchen. Louis has peeked inside the fridge and the only piece of food in there is one chocolate biscuit]

Louis Theroux:
Why don't you have more food?

Jimmy Savile:
Because there's plenty of caf?s.

Louis Theroux:
Why is there no cooker in here?

Jimmy Savile:
Cooker means people, means making food, means washing up, means... ladies clattering and banging. No cooker, babe, no brain damage.

Louis Theroux:
What about if you're entertaining, if you have friends round for dinner, what do you cook them?

Jimmy Savile:
I don't have them sort of friends, and I don't have them sort of nights.

[Jimmy shows Louis his bedroom]

Jimmy Savile:
[pointing at his bed] The altar. That's the altar, there.

Louis Theroux:
Why do you call it the altar?

Jimmy Savile:
Because I go to sleep in it, and I smile, and it's nice to be there.

Louis Theroux:
Yeah. That doesn't sound like an altar to me.

Jimmy Savile:
Well, it just sounds like one to me.

Louis Theroux:
[smiling] Really?

Jimmy Savile:
Yes.

Louis Theroux:
The altar, is that because you sacrifice people on the altar?

Jimmy Savile:
No, no, no, no, that's negative, I'm positive.

Louis Theroux:
Now, why you written my name and address on this pad?

Jimmy Savile:
Because I never knew whether you existed or not, you see, and somebody gave me the address and I thought, well if he doesn't exist, shall I send round some of my lads with strong sicilian accents to speak with him?

Louis Theroux:
[giggling] To break my legs?

Jimmy Savile:
No, no, no, no, just to speak with you.

Louis Theroux:
How did you get the address?

Jimmy Savile:
I'll get anything, me.

Louis Theroux:
How did you get it though?

Jimmy Savile:
I can get anything. There's nothing I can't get, and there's nothing I can't do.

[Louis, amused by his eccentric personality, turns to his camera crew and raises his eyebrows]

Jimmy Savile:
Thank you. Don't worry, it's safe with me.

[Jimmy has changed to go out, he's wearing an outdoor jacket with a big hood and jeans and trainers]

Louis Theroux:
Shouldn't you do your shoelaces up?

Jimmy Savile:
No, nobody could give me a good reason why I do shoelaces up.

Louis Theroux:
Because otherwise you trip over them.

Jimmy Savile:
The laces aren't long enough. Next!

Louis Theroux:
[voiceover] A difference of opinion over the things we should be talking about was starting to emerge.

Jimmy Savile:
It's a lot easier to make negative TV shows than it is to make positive ones. And if we are doing nice things and good things and happy things, imagine how many millions of people you will cheer up and will say "That Louis Theroux, he's a fabulous geezer, he doesn't just interview unusual people that leaves us with nothing except how unusual they are, look at the wisdom he extracted."

Louis Theroux:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It can't all be positive though, can it? I mean, that's just not reality.

Jimmy Savile:
Oh that's alright, make it as negative as you like! That's alright, see you in court. Take a few quid off you sir, take a few quid off anybody. Money has no conscience.

[In Jimmy's kitchen, Louis is making coffee]

Louis Theroux:
I was looking for a mug just now, can I show you what I found?

[Louis opens a cupboard revealing liquor bottles inside and takes out a couple]

Louis Theroux:
A secret cache of booze. It's been touched.

Jimmy Savile:
Now then, ask me, ask me what they are. You see, a good interviewer always asks questions, he never opinionates before the answer, because the answer might make him look a bit silly.

Louis Theroux:
Yeah, so what's the answer?

Jimmy Savile:
Now then, ask me the question first. Take the first bottle.

Louis Theroux:
Why do you have a bottle of Captain Morgan rum in your... For a teetotaller that looks odd.

Jimmy Savile:
No, no, you see, you're opinionating again. Are you asking the question or are you telling me? Which are you doing?

Louis Theroux:
Um, why have you got Captain Morgan rum in your cupboard?

Jimmy Savile:
Because, my eldest brother, Vince, who is in his 80s, 36 years Royal Navy, and now lives in a super home here in Leeds, and he dearly beloves the rum. Now you see, isn't it better when you ask questions?

Louis Theroux:
Well, it is and it isn't because I thought we were having a conversation, Jimmy.

Jimmy Savile:
Well, we are in a conversation. But you see, it's not a conversation when there is accusation to start with. "What are you doing" you said, "as a teetotaller, with half empty bottles of booze!"

Louis Theroux:
[smiling] Yeah, yeah. You didn't like that.

Jimmy Savile:
Oh, I loved it.

Louis Theroux:
You didn't.

Jimmy Savile:
I loved it 'cos I tried to help you!

[Louis laughs]

Jimmy Savile:
My job in life is to try to help people.

Louis Theroux:
You didn't like it.

Jimmy Savile:
I loved it. Next!

Louis Theroux:
Next... Don't start that.

Jimmy Savile:
[claps his hands] Ah, ha ha ha ha! He didn't like that either! Ha ha ha ha ha! I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it! Ha ha ha.

[Jimmy is packing to go on a cruise ship]

Jimmy Savile:
Cigars, bigger ones for the TV and newspapers.

Louis Theroux:
Why is it better to have a big one for the TV and the newspapers?

Jimmy Savile:
Cos it sticks out more on the television.

Louis Theroux:
[holding up a packet of Durex, smirking] Pack of condoms, is that...

Jimmy Savile:
Whoa! Hope springs eternal in the human breast. Especially if you're single.

Jimmy Savile:
[packing his suitcase]... one shirt, and then I'm packed up.

Louis Theroux:
No underpants?

Jimmy Savile:
Got 'em on - wash 'em every night, dry through the night, clean the next day. Never take gear you don't really need. Travel light.

Louis Theroux:
You really do that?

Jimmy Savile:
Yes. Nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with that. You wash everything in the night when you get in the shower, hang it all up, and it's dry in the morning. Complete new set, fresh smelling. [calling his friend who has just arrived at the flat] Jim the Pill!

Louis Theroux:
What will you use to wash the pants with?

Jimmy Savile:
Water.

Louis Theroux:
Just water?

Jimmy Savile:
No, soap and things... Jim the Pill, where are you?

Jim the Pill:
[from another room] I'm here!

Jimmy Savile:
Come here!

Louis Theroux:
[still not letting the underpants topic go] Just hand soap?

Louis Theroux:
[voiceover] Although I'd gone to bed, Will stayed up late with Jimmy. He began talking about his work as a dancehall manager in the Fifties.

Jimmy Savile:
In the dancehalls I invented zero tolerance, I wouldn't stand for any nonsense whatever - ever. Ever ever ever. I was always in trouble with the law for being heavy-handed. Always. But I couldn't care less about that.

Will Yapp:
[off-camera] Ejecting people who were mucking about?

Jimmy Savile:
No, I never threw anybody out. Tied 'em up, and put them down in the bloody boilerhouse until I was ready for them, at 2 o'clock in the f***ing morning. They'd plead to get out! Nobody ever got slung out of my place.

Will Yapp:
Tied them up and put them in the back?

Jimmy Savile:
Oh aye, yeah. Oh aye, bollocks to them, yeah. We'd tie 'em up and everybody would come back and I was the judge, jury and executioner.

[the picture fades to a different point in the conversation]

Jimmy Savile:
You know, if a copper came and said "You was a bit heavy with them, that kid or those two guys, whatever", I'd say "Your daughter comes in here, she's 16, she's not supposed to come into town but she does and she comes here. Presumably you'd like me to look after her, if you don't want me to look after her, tell me, and I'll let them dirty slags do what they want to her" "All right, Jim, all right, all right, all right" "All right, then. Don't give me a f***ing hard time, then" "Yeah, you're right, you're right, you didn't give the bastard half enough, I'll tell you, Jim. Thank you, goodbye" And I never got nicked.

[he chuckles]

Jimmy Savile:
And I've never altered. I've got zero tolerance, me.

[he lights another cigar]

Louis Theroux:
[standing on the balcony of Jimmy's seaside flat] So we're in Scarborough, right, and this was the Duchess's residence, was it - your mother when she was alive?

Jimmy Savile:
I bought it because I liked it. She came to live here because she liked it.

Louis Theroux:
Did you argue much when you were living together?

Jimmy Savile:
Never.

Louis Theroux:
Never?

Jimmy Savile:
Never.

Louis Theroux:
Bicker?

Jimmy Savile:
No point in arguing.

Louis Theroux:
And what about if you had a girl with you?

Jimmy Savile:
Uh, she would have actually killed the girl.

[Jimmy shows Louis inside his deceased mother's bedroom at his flat in Scarborough]

Jimmy Savile:
[opening a wardrobe with his mother's clothes inside, sealed in plastic covers] Now, my cleaner takes them out and gets them freshened up about once a year. Now all this gear was gear she wore, so instead of slinging it away I thought I'd hang onto it because these make better souvenirs than photographs. These are much nicer than photographs. So, there, there... all the gear there.

Louis Theroux:
Can we take some of them out?

Jimmy Savile:
Well, not really - well, what do you wanna take them out for, do you wanna wear 'em?

Jimmy Savile:
When I come in, I always go... I'm coming through the door, I always go "Alright, darling" Which is a greeting as I walk past the door. So it's a friendly thing, it's not morbid and it's not anything like that, it's totally friendly. So there.

Louis Theroux:
Yeah.

Jimmy Savile:
Now, out here...

Louis Theroux:
But Jimmy... are you quite keen to get away from this?

Jimmy Savile:
No, no, no. I'm quite happy to sit here, forever.

[he sits on the bed]

Louis Theroux:
Why are you becoming a little bit passive-aggressive?

Jimmy Savile:
Because, because I'm just thinking of the time factor.

[the camera goes back to his mother's wardrobe]

Jimmy Savile:
I think they're much nicer than photographs. Different class, wonderful. But they give me great pleasure, they don't give me any morbidity or anything like that.

Louis Theroux:
Yeah. Just so you know... I didn't even bring up morbidity.

Jimmy Savile:
No, well, that's alright then.

Louis Theroux:
So why are you bringing it up?

Jimmy Savile:
Just the way your face looks.

Louis Theroux:
Well, I don't want to be disrespectful, it's obviously... the room which is closest to your mother, the most important person in your life.

Jimmy Savile:
No, no, no, you see, because it's not her room that's important, it's the whole ethos, the fact that we were together for all our lives, that's the important bit.

Louis Theroux:
So, why do you say in interviews that you hate children when I've seen you with kids and you clearly enjoy their company and you have a good rapport with them?

Jimmy Savile:
Right, obviously I don't hate 'em. That's number one.

Louis Theroux:
Yeah. So why would you say that then?

Jimmy Savile:
Because we live in a very funny world. And it's easier for me, as a single man, to say "I don't like children" because that puts a lot of salacious tabloid people off the hunt.

Louis Theroux:
Are you basically saying that so tabloids don't, you know, pursue this whole 'Is he/isn't he a paedophile?' line, basically?

Jimmy Savile:
Yes, yes, yes. Oh, aye. How do they know whether I am or not? How does anybody know whether I am? Nobody knows whether I am or not. I know I'm not, so I can tell you from experience that the easy way of doing it when they're saying "Oh, you have all them children on Jim'll Fix It", say "Yeah, I hate 'em."

Louis Theroux:
Yeah. To me that sounds more, sort of, suspicious in a way though, because it seems so implausible.

Jimmy Savile:
Well, that's my policy, that's the way it goes. That's what I do. And it's worked a dream.

Louis Theroux:
Has it worked?

Jimmy Savile:
A dream.

[he yawns]

Louis Theroux:
Why have you said in interviews that you don't have emotions?

Jimmy Savile:
Because it's easier. It's easier. You say you've emotions then you've got to explain 'em for two hours.

[a pause]

Jimmy Savile:
The truth is I'm very good at masking them.

Louis Theroux:
[voiceover] We'd been together for a week, and it was now time for me to go. To my surprise, I was sorry to say goodbye. I had a newfound respect for Jimmy, and although I still didn't feel that close to him, I thought that probably made me no different to anyone else in his life.

[Louis holds a "Jim Fixed It For Me" medallion]

Louis Theroux:
This would be a very nice parting gift.

Jimmy Savile:
Nobody ever got a Fix It badge unless I did them a Fix It.

Louis Theroux:
You have Fixed It for me.

Jimmy Savile:
No, I haven't. No I haven't. That's number one...

Louis Theroux:
You've Fixed It for me to hang out with you.

Jimmy Savile:
Number Two - if you think you're walking out of my life then you've got another thing coming, because in the time that we've been together, I have come to depend on you, and lean on you.

[he actually leans on Louis]

Jimmy Savile:
And lean on you.

Louis Theroux:
Yeah, you've gone a bit schmaltzy now.