The dirty open secret that was Jimmy Saville

On Tuesday on Channel 4 a new drama National Treasure starts. It stars Robbie Coltrane as one half of a comic duo who is accused of sexual offences. The clear inspiration is Operation Yewtree which was established after the fall out of the Jimmy Saville revelations, an number of famous figures found themselves facing charges of similar crimes. Some were found guilty in a court of law, some were found not guilty and the case against others were found to be spurious and were not taken to court. Looking back at the aftermath of the revelations you will find certain figures claimed to have no knowledge of what Saville was doing such as Greg Dyke who claimed the alibi of not being at the BBC when Saville was working there yet in 2001 when Dyke was Director General  Saville was banned from having any involvement with Children In Need due to concerns about his involvement with children or the likes of former BBC1 controller Michael Grade who said he had heard about certain things but nothing concerte to warrant any action. Yet you will find instances of jokes about Saville's activates cropping up that now seem thinly veiled references of what he was doing. In the Only Fools and Horses episode Hole in One Uncle Albert tries to help Del and Rodney out of a financial pickle by falling down the cellar of the Nag's Head, in the ensuing court case Del takes to the stand he exaggerates the impact on Uncle Albert's life saying due to (made up by Del) his fund rising efforts he had gained the nickname of the Jimmy Saville of Peckham, it is interesting to note that John Sullivan the Writer of Only Fools and Horses had worked in the props department of the BBC before his career in writing, In hind sight one has to wonder if Sullivan had heard things about Saville during his tea break. On Youtube you can find a compilation of clips featuring the likes David Baddiel & Frank Skinner, Stewart Lee & Richard Herring and Chris Morris making jokes about Saville that at the time were probably at the time were written off as being outrageous for the sake of it though now in hind sight they were very close to the truth. Perhaps the most clear example came from Saville himself when he appeared on Have I Got News and made a joke about local schoolgirls being in fear of his wrestling abilities