I didn’t know that I’d lost my voice until I took the dogs out and called Roger to keep up
A rather strangled “Ro—-Ger!”, something Lady Bracknell would come out with echoed forth.
I’ve COVID free but feel rough.
So not much to report today.
I’ve caught up of the Jimmy Saville docu/drama The Reckoning is a chilling a sobering look at another era which didn’t see abuse in plain sight.
I remember meeting him at the Guttman Games in 1990, which is when all of the eleven spinal injury units in British met up in Stoke Mandeville Hospital to play wheelchair sports.
I knew nothing of his sexual reputation save for the fact that most of the Aylesbury nurses disliked him intently
To me he was a creepy patronising old freak, a gob shite that wore too much jewellery and who tried to have a say about patients when he had not authority to do so.
He was Stoke Mandeville’s cash cow , with his own office in the new wing
And I disliked the Spinal Injury Unit’s need to be sucking up to him.
Steve Coogan is excellent in the role of Saville, a complicated, lonely damaged man
You need to take things easy for a few days. Dare I say, you have been going at full pelt for a good while!
ReplyDeleteI haven't watched the Reckoning. I'm sure it is excellent, and I may watch it on catch-up, but JS always gave me the creeps. I always find it amazing that people know of these men's reputation, but because they can splash the cash, they can wheedle their way into positions of trust and their depravity is overlooked. Just a shame he died before justice could be meted out. xx
I have slept in bursts today and have watched the first three hours of The Reckoning
DeleteThe last one I will watch later
Get well soon, and Well said about JS
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
Thank u
DeleteI think the world is “rough” at the moment. Sleep is elusive. Rest up, your “ life” is much needed
ReplyDeleteI find I sleep in bursts of three hours and have done that twice today
DeleteThis virus may be nature's way of saying, hey, slow down a day or two. I hope you'll be feeling better soon.
ReplyDeleteThank ux
DeleteI am watching "The Reckoning" too. Steve Coogan is playing the part brilliantly. I also met Savile - back in 1970 in St James's Palace at a special celebration of the Youth Club movement. I was representing East Yorkshire youth clubs. I remember the foul odour of stale cigar smoke that hung about him.
ReplyDeleteCreepy yp
DeleteAs a little girl I sensed there was something about him to be afraid of - as well as a children's tv artist x
ReplyDeleteMe too. There were things I longed to ask to be 'fixed' but would never write to Jim'll fix it because he gave me the creeps. He always lingered putting the medals on little girls and held on to them too long. I didn't understand what I was uneasy about at the time.
DeleteHe looked and behaved oddly, even at the time I knew, as a child, he was an oddity
DeleteMum and I used to watch TOTP together , we hated it when he was there. Just gave us the creeps. Beverley
DeleteHe always gave me the creeps. I have no intention of watching the programme.
ReplyDeleteMy first comment must have gone to H.M.P. Spam.
ReplyDeleteSteve Coogan is amazing as JS and the series gives me the heebie jeebies ... he was truly awful and it's sickening...... our art teacher at school was similar and used to touch up the girls but I don't think he went as far as JS ..... it was like that in the 50's and 60's and we used to just shrug him off but it was so wrong. XXXX
ReplyDeleteBut the struggling off was how everyone coped..now we cope differently
DeleteJS sounds like an epic scum bag. It seems his money bought him rights and privileges while others chose to look away. A slower pace and some rest should go far to restore your health. I'm glad to hear it is not Covid.
ReplyDeleteLess of the money more of the hidden righteousness and power of celebrity , contacts and charity
DeleteOh, COVID is rough.
ReplyDeleteEven weeks after some of the people I know have been in the clear, the body is still recovering...
Hopefully it's just transitory.
XOXO
I’m COVID negative ..but will test again tomorrow
DeleteHope you feel better soon, take care of yourself. I would not be able to watch that vile man, there was and is so much of it going on still. Noreen
ReplyDeleteIf it stops more institutional abuse it’s worth the watch
DeleteI will say it again John go to bed until you are rested and feeling well again. You are not looking after yourself and need a mommy like me to look after you. Gigi
ReplyDeleteOr a daddy
DeleteWatched a bit last night. he's got the voice to a tee. creepy.
ReplyDeleteI’m just about to see the final episode
DeleteHe is brilliant , he is saville to a tee and shows what an intricate web he wove ,that those who knew or suspected could or would do nothing .
ReplyDeleteHe’s a talented mimic , and it was a brave role to take, , it will be interesting if he will get an award for it ?
DeleteHaven't been able to get myself to watch it yet. What a creep. Hope the voice comes back quickly. Roger is probably enjoying the respite.
ReplyDeleteI can’t get Mary to do anything, remember shesvdeaf
DeleteI knew a bit about him as a television celebrity, but did not know his connection to the hospital. I just cannot get over the fact that it took 40 years from the first reports for him to finally be exposed for what he was.
ReplyDeleteIt was a perfect storm and one of British manners and class too
DeleteI have just been watching The Reckoning too - one episode each evening. Perhaps I shouldn't as I go to bed feeling quite disturbed and slightly upset. I would have been the same age as those underage girls at the beginning. Chilling.
ReplyDeleteThe stars aligned at the time to protect these men, hopefully the scale of such abuse won’t be seen again
DeleteI used to enjy losing my voice when in school becaue then I didn't have to answer questions! Hope your troat isn't sore and that your voice returns soon. I have no idea who the man is who you were talking about. Wiiill have to loook him up - or not!
ReplyDeleteHugs!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Savile
DeleteI watched 'The Reckoning' on BBC iPlayer all in one go last week, and found it even more disturbing (and, indeed, distressing) than I'd been expecting. Although never having actively' 'liked' Savile as such, all through his public 'career' I'd just accepted him as an original eccentric without my having particular negative feelings in his direction. He was just 'there'. Throughout his years it had never crossed my mind even for a fleeting moment that he could have been the persistent, ever-indulging paedo we got to know he'd been.
ReplyDeleteSteve Coogan was astonishing in the role. Although I often thought that facially (at least) he didn't quite resemble Savile close enough, the character he portrayed, even if only through our hindsight, made perfect, horrific sense.
What sticks in my craw most of all is how he paraded an invented devoutly religious side to make people (including myself, a one-time devotedly Roman Catholic until my mid-20s) think that, like him or not, at heart he must be a 'good' man. I remember a TV prog in the 60s in which he introduced the then Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Heenan, telling him that he, Savile, as a faithful R.C., seriously wants him to become Pope! Of course, Heenan laughingly poo-poohed the idea, though everyone else on the programme - and probably most of the TV audience - lapped it up. ("Hear, hear!", I myself thought).
Couple of things in 'The Reckoning' I hadn't known - first, his relationship with his mother wasn't quite as cosily mutually worshipping as Savile had always suggested - and then the suggestion or hint (but quite a strong one) that Savile had a necrophilic side too, which just makes me shudder in utter horror..
By the way, does anyone remember his funeral cortege being slowly progressed through crowded streets for the church service - and at one point a girl (looked like a teenager) came out of the crowd, kissed her own hand, then placed it lovingly on the window of the hearse. Whether she was told to do that by her mother or someone, we don't know, but it was a mere few days later that we all got to know what a hideous monster Savile had been all the time - and yes, when it came out I was as shocked as anyone.
Get completely well soon, JayGee. I know you're trying hard. :-)
Yes, I remember when his Mum died, he locked himself in her home, with her body, for several days. I thought it odd at the time, but it does make you wonder...
DeleteHis relationship with his mother I think was more complicated than the series showed HH
DeleteJayGee, I've just discovered that Savile's appearance on BBC Radio4's 'In the Psychiatrists' Chair' where he's being interviewed by the late Dr Anthony Clare is still available on YouTube - sound only, of course. I think it was broadcast about 20 years ago - and now, retrospectively with our present knowledge, when I re-listen it's sure to be a veritable jaw-dropper. I clearly recall Clare telling Savile that he, Clare, wanted to delve into what lies below Savile's external personality, and Savile indignantly replying that "There's nothing there! With me what you see is what you get!" Never was there a bigger lie told! One Hell of a Whopper! He also says at one point when Clare mentions his close affinity with children that he actuals dislikes kids - the word may actually have been 'hate'! Of course at the time the programme went out all the fibs he told in it were never challenged at all, not even, unfortunately, by Clare himself. I can't wait to re-visit it, only this time to be totally gobsmacked.
DeleteThe prog is only just over half an hour long. You might want to give it a listen too, JayGee. Strongly recommended.
Just listened to this radio programme again, and my recollections above were pretty close or spot-on. He does use the word 'hate' referring to children, though as a brief, throwaway line. Also towards the end when asked what he values most it's his 'ultimate freedom' (a phrase he employs repeatedly) to do what he likes - though of course we only now know what he was referring to, and in this conversation there's not a hint towards the reality of what he did mean. He must have been chuckling inside as he said it.
DeleteI’ve found it on you tube will listen to it this evening
DeleteAlways like Steve Coogan in all his roles. He is a bit flash and mouthy in real life and not everybody's cup of tea.
ReplyDeleteSomething as a teenager though, watching TOTP my friends and l always said ' why is that old bloke on Radio 1 ' when most of the dj's were much younger and were a bit attractive at least. Apparantly Princess Diana found him an old perv and Prince Charles asked JS for advice on his crumbling marriage !
Girls were not listened to back in the day and most complaints were dealt with as a bit of 'slap and tickle' or the fella had WHT which stands for Wandering Hand Trouble.
I really hope times have changed, but l think they are only a little better.
I am a great advocate of bringing back 'the stocks, l am serious.
A few nights alone on the moors needing the loo, nothing to eat or drink and scarey wildlife making noises might help, otherwise castration all the way !! Tess
Tess, I often say that I would like to see stocks back. I think some public humiliation and rotten eggs would be quite effective in many cases.
DeleteMen in the 1970s were sort of allowed to behave badly it was often seen as harmless and it was normalised
Deletei found The Reckoning very disturbing, i didn't know that a girl had committed suicide, i live in Aylesbury and when i was very young Jimmy Saville was a frequent visitor to a family across the road from us, they had 5 children and he was apparently friendly with their teenage daughter. I remember how everyone in the street would be impressed and excited to see his car outside this family's house, all hoping to catch a glimpse of him, now i have a feeling of dread about this and just hope the girl involved is ok. I hope you soon feel better and regain your voice xx
ReplyDeleteThe seventies was a bleak decade for abuse….
DeleteTake it easy. Get well. Stay well.
ReplyDeleteJust settled down to put vicks on the soles of my feet to watch bake off……it’s not on !!!!!
DeleteTerrible that he 'got away with it' for so long when so many folk seemed ti have a good idea what was going on.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think they did weave
DeleteI don't know that show or that story.
ReplyDeleteHope you feel better soon, John. Take care!
I think many did know what was going o, but said nothing. Even I heard rumours at the time.
ReplyDeleteAn impressive perfomance - but didn't you find it distracting that all the Scarborough scenes were filmed in Llandudno? Were you aware that they were filming there at the time?
ReplyDeleteYes, they kept showing one part of Scarborough up to confuse me. Though
Delete