Inside Louis Theroux’s bizarre ‘friendly’ relationship with Jimmy Savile: Documentary maker ‘quite liked’ the children’s TV presenter and invited him to his house – despite suspecting he could be a paedophile

• Jimmy Savile’s crimes are back in the spotlight after release of The Reckoning
• READ MORE: Inside Jimmy Savile’s disturbing relationship with his mother

With Jimmy Savile and his crimes back in the spotlight following the release of the BBC’s The Reckoning, a chilling clip has resurfaced showing the moment Louis Theroux directly asked the TV presenter about rumours he was a paedophile.

But despite the journalist questioning the Jim’ll Fix It host about the allegations in 2000 for the BAFTA-winning documentary ‘When Louis met… Jimmy’, the pair in fact struck up a ‘friendly’ relationship.

Louis, 53, spent three months with Savile for the programme and remained on good terms with him afterwards, even inviting him to stay at his house.

After Savile’s death in 2011, aged 84, it emerged that the broadcaster and long-time charity campaigner had sexually abused hundreds of women and children.

He molested victims as young as five at NHS hospitals during decades of unrestricted access and as many as 72 victims while working at the BBC. 

With Jimmy Savile and his crimes back in the spotlight following the release of the BBC ‘s The Reckoning, a chilling clip (above) has resurfaced showing the moment Louis Theroux directly asked the TV presenter about rumours he was a paedophile

His earliest victim at the BBC was assaulted in 1959 and his latest in 2006, while working on Top of the Pops.

In his 2000 documentary, Louis questioned Savile over rumours that he was sexually interested in children.

During a chilling exchange, Savile said: ‘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 asked: ‘Is that basically so the tabloids don’t pursue this whole is he or isn’t he a paedophile line?’

Savile replied: ‘Oh, aye. How do they know whether I am not? How does anybody know whether I am? Nobody knows whether I am or not. I know I’m not… That’s my policy and it’s worked a dream.’

It has since been revealed that Louis tried to report sexual abuse carried out by Savile after making the film, but it was not followed up.

The filmmaker claims he reported the presenter in 2001, after a woman came forward and told him she’d been one of his girlfriends, along with others, when she was 15, but a BBC producer did not talk to police.

In 2016, Louis made another documentary in which he met Savile’s victims and took himself to task for having been ‘silly and gullible’. 

But despite the journalist questioning the Jim’ll Fix It host (pictured at Theroux’ house) about the allegations in 2000 for the BAFTA-winning documentary ‘When Louis met… Jimmy’, the pair in fact struck up a ‘friendly’ relationship

In 2001 Savile paid a visit to Theroux’s BBC offices for a short follow up documentary. The filmmaker recalled: ‘He was dressed inappropriately, his behaviour was borderline creepy, but at the time, like others, I felt this was part of his comic persona’

Louis, 53, spent three months with Savile for the programme and remained on good terms with him afterwards, even inviting him to stay at his house. Pictured, Louis Theroux was granted access to Savile’s mother’s preserved bedroom in a documentary

He spoke to several victims, describing the programme as ‘a way to figure out how it was I missed what I missed’.

The filmmaker has previously spoken of his guilt about not doing more to try and expose Savile.

In a revealing piece on the BBC website, he said that, like it was suggested by Savile’s victims, he had been ‘hoodwinked’ by the paedophile.

He wrote: ‘At the time [of the 2000 documentary], I’d done my best to be tough with him. I knew he was weird and, with all his mannerisms, rather irritating – I had no interest in making a soft piece about Jimmy the Charity Fundraiser.

‘The dark rumours – of sexual deviance, of being unemotional, of having a morbid interest in corpses – were one of the reasons I’d taken him on as a subject.

‘I wanted to get the goods on Savile. The trouble was, I had no clear sense of what those goods were.’

Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival in 2019, he said the pair had a ‘friendly relationship’ but that he would ‘never call him my friend’.

But he added the 2000 documentary was an unwitting ‘education in grooming’ after the sex offender ‘brazenly’ referred to the allegations while still pulling the wool over the nation’s eyes.

In his 2000 documentary, Louis questioned Savile over rumours that he was sexually interested in children

Although there is no suggestion that Louis could have known about Savile’s crimes, the journalist was criticised for only briefly addressing in the documentary widespread rumours that Savile might be a paedophile

In an interview with friend Dawn O’Porter at the festival, Louis said the Savile interview was supposed to ‘poke fun at him’ but admitted he ‘failed to get the truth’.

He added: ‘[At the time] there wasn’t enough to go on to make it [Savile’s child abuse] a relevant topic of inquiry.’

But the documentary maker stands by the programme and said: ‘I watched it since everything came out and it’s still a hard-headed piece of journalism.’ 

He told Desert Island Discs in 2019: ‘There is something very conflicting about reading about crimes and predatory activity while also knowing that this was someone you sort of quite liked and trying to square that in your own mind.

‘I remained in contact with him a little bit after I made the first programme. I am still a bit confused about how I was able to sort of experience him as a somewhat likeable person in the year or two after making it.’

In 2021, the documentary maker told The Sunday Times Magazine that he was ‘struck’ by the content of his documentary after watching it back with the knowledge of the paedophile’s crimes

Although there is no suggestion that Louis could have known about Savile’s crimes, the journalist was criticised for only briefly addressing in the documentary widespread rumours that Savile might be a paedophile. 

In 2021, the documentary maker told The Sunday Times Magazine that he was ‘struck’ by the content of his documentary after watching it back with the knowledge of the paedophile’s crimes. 

Referencing an expert in his book in which he says that ‘depending on your point of view, I either made a revealing programme about or failed to make a revealing programme’ about Savile. 

‘It’s neither one or the other, is it?’, he told the publication. ‘There’s plenty of ammo you could deploy in either direction. I’ve watched it since the revelations came out and I’m struck by how much is there. 

‘It’s very far from soft journalism. We all knew he was doing some act. He would more or less invite people to believe he had secrets.’ 

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