Jimmy Savile

Presenter0:14

On our desert island this week is the disc jockey, fundraiser and fixer, Jimmy Sabill. Jim, you must have heard a lot of records in your time. I have heard 17,840

Jimmy Savile0:25

to six thousand and three.

Presenter0:26

They sent you the l

Jimmy Savile0:27

They did originally and then it got that I had nowhere to live because my place was so full of records so I stopped them sending the records because we have a thing called the BBC library which has everything and that suits me down to the ground.

Presenter0:41

And today you're playing just eight that may have to last the rest of your life, a sobering thought.

Jimmy Savile0:47

Yes, uh but if I only have to live another half an hour, I couldn't even get the eight in. But who knows what is in the lap of the Lord, so therefore the eight records which uh

Jimmy Savile0:58

I am going to uh choose are those that are not favourite records of mine by any means, but they would remind me of great chunks of life that I've already lived and some beautiful people. So they are memory records as against favourite records. What's the first one?

Jimmy Savile1:15

The first one would remind me of the early days of my life during World War II with all the excitement that wartime has for young people. War is a tragedy. It's also, when you look at it historically, quite useless really, one way or another. But undeniably for young people, it can be a very exciting time. And when you have sheltered under tables, when bombs fall round you and you hear the peculiar whistling as they come down and the crunch and the life and the rushing out afterwards and smell the burning and stuff like that, all these memories were epitomized with for me the music of the day which was the music of the big band. And our great thrill at the time was when the Glen Miller band came over, Glen Miller being the apex of music in those days. And so the first record would be the key that opens the box to his music, which would be his signature tune, Moonlight Serenade.

Presenter2:15

Uh

Jimmy Savile2:15

Yeah.

Presenter2:15

Moonlight Serenade by the Glen Miller Band.

Presenter2:19

So your childhood during the war you're a Yorkshireman, of course.

Jimmy Savile2:22

Indeed, born and bred in Leeds in Yorkshire and still live there, I commute from Leeds to anywhere that life may want me to go. I'm quite happy to do so. And you were one of a big family? Yes, I'm the youngest of seven. Four sisters and two brothers, a very close family. With the Duchess looking after the whole lot. The Duchess looked after the whole lot for some many years. I actually lived with her all of my life until she decided to go to heaven. My dad, a wonderful, honest, beautiful, simple soul with great dignity and standards. He died some many years ago. He never was around to see in Inverted Commas the success of my pop life, but he could see it from heaven, so that was okay. You were at St Anne's School. You stayed there a long time. Well, it was one of those schools where you went in when you were four and came out when you were fourteen. And there were no exams, therefore no hassles, no academic qualifications. We were taught the four R's: reading, writing, reckoning up, and the difference in between right and wrong. And armed at 14 with such a backdrop, we were able to sally forth and lay waste to the whole world.

Jimmy Savile3:41

You were a drummer at a very early age. Yes, indeed. I played drums. When I was at school, school would finish at four o'clock, and at ten past four, I would rush down to the local dance hall and play for the afternoon tea dance for half an hour, and then I would play drums again in the evening. And it was a girls' band, in actual fact. A girl's band. Well, it was a ladies' band at the time, yeah, because it was wartime, you see, and all the men were fighting. So ladies played lots of musical instruments in bands and things. And one of the girls would go onto piano, I'd go on drums, and I would have to have cushions to sit on the chair because I wasn't tall enough to look over the tops of the the drums. And I earned, I think it was five shillings a week.

Speaker 14:02

Yeah.

Jimmy Savile4:19

For playing for five afternoons and five evenings, spectacular times. Your second record, what's that, Jim? My second record is to do with the definitive impression that my first real job gave me, which was seven and a half years down the pits. And after you've spent seven and a half years down the coal mine, you learn enormous things about people and life, even though you are a mile and a quarter away from it underground. So my second record would be the Lee Dorsey version of working in a coal mine.

Jimmy Savile4:52

Working in the Coal Mine by Lee Dorsey. You will

Presenter4:56

Poor Bevin. The boy of

Jimmy Savile4:57

I was indeed in those days the Minister of Labour, Mr. Ernest Bevin, put the numbers from one to zero.

Jimmy Savile5:04

In his hat, and every call-up period plucked out a number, and everybody whose national service number ended in that particular number went down the pit willy-nilly. So I meant one in every ten. I'd spent some number of years training to go into the RAF, and I was one of the few people who could recognize every aircraft in the sky of the Western world, but couldn't see them because I was a mile and a quarter underground. So those were what Bevin boys were. A very hard life, was it? It was a very interesting life, and it wasn't hard.

Jimmy Savile5:38

Insofar as when you are young and you like physical work, it was more of a pleasure. It's a strange thing to say about being down the pits that it would be a pleasure. I personally found it a pleasure because I respected so much the people I worked with. I mean to me, the guys that worked on the coal face, the actual miners, they were my heroes and still are to a great extent. So to me it wasn't really hard. It was physically hard, but I actually really enjoyed it very much.

Jimmy Savile6:04

Now there was an accident in the pit that got you out of there. Yes indeed, because it was something that nobody had told me.

Presenter6:07

Yeah.

Jimmy Savile6:11

It was when you were working on the coal face, I had to do a thing called belt cleaning, and it's the conveyor belt that the coal comes along. And when the coal cutting machine had done its work, the belt was full of dust, and the weight on the belt was so that the motor wouldn't actually pull the belt full of dust. So a small, insignificant youth would be put at one end of the belt and would lie on the belt and shovel with a short-handle shovel all the dust off the belt so that the motor could then pull a free belt, you see. And one had to put one's lamp on the coal face side where the coal still was, so that when the coal

Jimmy Savile6:47

The man that came to do the explosion, the shot firer, looked down the face. If he saw a lamp there, he'd know somebody was there. Well, nobody told me to put my light on that side. And I, of course, had it on the other side. And he looked down the face, saw no light, detonated the shot, which went off about four feet away from me. And there was this sort of womph sound, because there's not enough down there for reverberation to see. It's just a womph sound. And a big piece of earth came from the ceiling and hit me on the back.

Jimmy Savile7:14

It was one of those awkward things that it wasn't an obvious sign of damage and it just got worse as the days went by. I finished up walking with two sticks and a steel jacket, which I still have today, a steel corset. So I wasn't any good for physical work, and that's how we came up and invented disc jockeying. Your third record? Third record is because of the pop phenomenon, you see. The pop phenomenon playing such a part in people's lives, especially mine. And I was very honoured to work with my friends, the Beatles, on many, many, many occasions. On one of them, I was in the dressing room, and Paul McCartney was getting shaved at a mirror. And John was lacing up his boots. We did a sketch, the five of us, on the show, where they had to dress up with boots and things. And he's lacing up the boots. And he said to Paul, Don't forget we're recording on Thursday and it's Tuesday and it's your turn to write the tune. And Paul said, Yeah, that's all right. And John pressed him and he said, Well.

Jimmy Savile8:11

We know what you're going to do because it's only two days away and we've got to have a tune to record. And I thought this was amazing because these world stars were discussing writing a tune like it was like going for the milk, you know. And Paul said, Meanti says, can't we write about anything other than love? Because all our songs are about love. She loves you. Yay, yay, yay. So I'm going to write something not about love.

Jimmy Savile8:33

And so John pressed him again. He said, well, what are you going to write?

Jimmy Savile8:36

And Paul looks round and Ringo was sitting reading a book and he says, I'll write about that book that he's reading. And that's how Paperback Writer came to be invented. And I thought it was the most marvellous occasion. It was a great honour for me to be able to be there to see the way that these great minds worked, you see. So that would be my tune of now to remind me of the complete phenomenon that is the pop business.

Presenter8:58

The Beatles paperback writer. Now there you were at the top of the pop business with the Beatles. You had to start in a humbler way. You started in a Leeds dance hall.

Jimmy Savile9:09

Yes, indeed. When I had a hurt back and couldn't do any physical work, which distressed me considerably because I rather like physical things, which is why I run marathons and such like today, I had to do something and I realized that I wasn't very good at a tremendous number of things. So I worked an inverse mensa-type logic way of writing down on a piece of paper all the things that I liked.

Jimmy Savile9:37

Uh they seemed idiot things at the time. For instance, on the paper was warmth.

Jimmy Savile9:42

Staying in bed of a morning?

Jimmy Savile9:44

Coloured lights, girls,

Jimmy Savile9:47

And all those things, right? When I looked at that list, the only thing that contained all the things on my list was a dance hall. I thought, goodness gracious.

Jimmy Savile9:54

Yeah, so I marched down to the local dance hall, wherein I was familiar, having played drums there for some considerable time, and said, I am the new assistant manager.

Jimmy Savile10:04

And the manager said, not a bad idea. And I started as assistant manager. Nice glamorous job, swanning about in a dinner suit. Indeed, and I worked there for nine years for Mecca Limited, finished up as a working director, won every conceivable award for making money and being successful in the dance hall game, gold, silver and bronze awards. And that's really why I finished up in the dance halls because I couldn't do any more physical work.

Presenter10:28

Yeah.

Jimmy Savile10:29

Yeah.

Presenter10:29

Now, you wanted to get in on on the creative side of pop as well. You started sending off tapes to Radio Luxembourg, demonstration tapes and that sort of thing.

Jimmy Savile10:38

If I may say, I didn't actually do that because I worked again the total inverse way. That's what everybody did, so I didn't do that. My dance hall was packed because by this time I'd turned myself into a disc jockey and was packing the place seven nights a week and six lunch times a week. And the word of this peculiar phenomenon, because there weren't dance halls playing records at the time, I was the very first one.

Jimmy Savile11:00

The record business heard of this amazing situation in Leeds, of all places according to them, and they came hotfoot to see this peculiar chap who

Jimmy Savile11:10

On a bare stage with a record player.

Jimmy Savile11:13

packed a thousand and odd people in every night and they said, We've never seen records played like that before. Would you come and do an audition for Edio Luxembourg? and I said, no, not really, because you've seen what you've seen, you either want me or you don't want me.

Jimmy Savile11:26

And they, three weeks later, sent me a telegram. I was in the States at the time. I'd won, again, yet another dance hall prize, which was a free trip to America. And they sent me a telegram. Your Radio Luxembourg programme starts next Monday. Just like that. Just like that, yes. In fact, I was due for the sack because my Yorkshire tones at the time were very unacceptable to the business. And they said, who is that freaky guy? You can't even understand what he's talking about, you see. And so I came in on the third week.

Presenter11:40

Don't like that.

Jimmy Savile11:56

They were going to give me the bullet until the manager of the station rushed down and said, Have you seen the listening figures for this guy's programme? I'd inherited 600,000 as a listening figure and in three weeks hooked it up to two and a half million. And you can't argue with success and money, so I stayed there for ten years. Record number four, Jim. Record number four was one of the great things that happened to me when I went to the States. And it was everybody's desire in this country at the time to see Elvis. Now, nobody had seen him, he was as mysterious and as unapproachable as the Dalai Lama.

Jimmy Savile12:27

at that time. And I got a phone number, which conceivably may lead to the man himself. And I went across on the freebie, which I'd won to the States, made the phone call, fannied to the people,'cause I'm a great fanny merchant, you know what I mean?

Jimmy Savile12:42

And lo and behold, finished up alongside Elvis with pictures taken. And I presented him with his gold record of 1,286,000 sales of It's Now or Never. And that really established me as somebody who did things that other people only dreamed of. Where did you find him? I found him in Hollywood, in the studios in Hollywood, and we formed quite a friendship. I went to see him several times from then on and we had some good times together, some great stories I've got. But not just now, because we play the record that I lugged the gold disc across just in case I got to meet him, which I did, which I gave him, and which is a tremendous memory for me.

Jimmy Savile13:20

Elvis Presley

Presenter13:21

It's now or never. Right from the beginning you showed a great compassion for people. You always did a vast amount

Jimmy Savile13:29

That was because my parents did exactly that. I grew up in that atmosphere. My mother and father were forever running charity things and whist drives and Beetle drives and stuff like that. And my earliest recollections were of that sort of life. And I enjoyed it because there's an old saying, which I didn't realise at the time, but afterwards, those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from their own.

Jimmy Savile13:54

So I instinctively realised that it was very nice doing things for people. You get some peculiar wages. Sometimes you get distrusted enormously. People want to know why you're doing it. But if you're stuck with that nature, then that's the way it goes. But my parents and family, who even now my brothers and sisters, are very big for doing things for people. It's a family characteristic. I'm just possibly better known for it because I'm better known. Well, you thought very big. I mean, how much did you raise for the spinal unit at Stoke Manderville? Well, it was necessary to rebuild it because it fell down.

Presenter14:25

That's Doke Mandela.

Jimmy Savile14:31

And that was a ten million pound lump.

Jimmy Savile14:34

which we got in three years with the help of an amazing voluntary team and we actually built the hospital as well. We didn't sort of give the money to somebody to build the hospital, we actually did it all ourselves with beautiful architects and builders and people like that and the building has now won three major building awards and it's alive and it's well and it's paid for and we don't need any more money. Thank you British public and British industry.

Presenter15:01

While thinking big like that, you still showed enormous humility. You were happy to go and work down there as a porter. Yes, I helped.

Jimmy Savile15:08

Yeah.

Presenter15:09

Uh

Jimmy Savile15:09

The lads, because they are the salt of the earth. You see, a hospital, to somebody that was in the dance hall, well, a hospital is a marvellous place because it's non-political, non-sectarian, non-religious. The common denominator is that everybody's in trouble with a feature that everybody has plenty of time because they're all laid in bed, so they've got plenty of time to talk. So, somebody like me coming in that spent his life in a gregarious way in a dance hall, for instance, with people, now we've got a hospital with beautiful people working there and being cured there, and sometimes, God bless them, dying there, which is a tremendous honor to be with somebody in their last few hours or even minutes. And so, I like to help in those places, which is an extension of the life that I'd had anyway. So, it was no big deal that I did it. It was my honour to be there. I wasn't doing them no favours. They were doing me far more favours, allowing me to go in the place in the first place.

Jimmy Savile16:04

Another record.

Jimmy Savile16:06

Another record, this particular record, is a very peculiar record insofar as I lived all my life with the Duchess, my mother, and I

Jimmy Savile16:16

was enjoying all this success in the pop world and I had a

Jimmy Savile16:20

As even now, Sunday Radio Show on Radio One.

Jimmy Savile16:24

And at the end of my radio show, I always finished off with a what's called a smooch record, which was a a romantic record, right? When the Duchess decided to go to heaven, this was quite a traumatic situation, and the programme and the show must go on. And everybody was waiting for me to acknowledge the fact that the Duchess had died. Because when your companion of all your life suddenly leaves you, it's quite something to get used to.

Jimmy Savile16:45

And I was driving back from a 17-mile walk which the Duchess was supposed to have started and I was supposed to have running. But because she was dead, I had to start it and run in it as well. And I was then hurrying back because she was lying in my sister's house in Leeds. And it had come to the deadline of what last record I was going to play on the Radio 1 show. And for the first time in days and days, I actually switched the radio on in my car and it's on queue.

Jimmy Savile17:16

This particular record

Jimmy Savile17:19

Came out of the speaker, and I thought that's the record because the lyric.

Jimmy Savile17:23

of this particular Ray Charles record

Jimmy Savile17:26

said everything that I felt

Jimmy Savile17:29

At the time.

Presenter17:31

I CAN'T Stop Loving You by Ray Charles.

Presenter17:34

Jim, you're a very resourceful man, just the man to run a long-running series like Jim Will Fix It. Tell me some of the mysteries of that series, some of the things that have happened.

Jimmy Savile17:44

It all started by the BBC saying to me, You've been fixing things for people most of your life. Why don't we put pictures to it and make a T V show? And that's exactly as it finished up. And I've taken the liberty today of working a little

Jimmy Savile18:00

Mini fix it.

Jimmy Savile18:01

of our own here on Desert Island Disc because I brought this beautiful young lady who lives in this very posh wheelchair who was one of our ex-patients at Stoke Manoville Hospital and her name is Charlotte and she helps me because she is our honorary assistant receptionist. So she must more or less run the place. Well she does indeed. You see this is how a receptionist works. Now just imagine that I'm a stranger, I come to your desk, what would you say to me?

Speaker 218:27

The library searching can help you.

Jimmy Savile18:29

Hello reception, can I help you? And I would say certainly you can.

Jimmy Savile18:32

And I would say I would like to go to St Joseph's ward. Which way is it, please?

Speaker 118:38

Go to the pond, and turn left at the shadow head.

Presenter18:41

Thank you very much. Well, tell me some of these people that come and ask you if they may come in.

Speaker 218:46

The Princess of Wales?

Presenter18:48

Yes.

Speaker 218:49

Prince of Wales

Presenter18:50

They came together, of course.

Presenter18:52

Who else can you think of?

Speaker 218:54

The Duke of Edinburgh.

Presenter18:55

And you told him the way.

Speaker 218:57

Yes.

Presenter18:57

Your social life is very superior, Charlotte.

Speaker 219:01

Ooh.

Presenter19:02

You see, Rob

Jimmy Savile19:03

Indeed. Now, I would now like to hand her over to you as a fix it for her so that you could ask her about what luxuries you would like to take on her desert island and the record

Jimmy Savile19:15

Whilst I was

Presenter19:15

Withdraw. So, this is something that Jim has fixed for you to be on desert island discs. Or before you choose a disc.

Presenter19:23

A luxury. Which one luxury would you like to have on this island? I think you'd enjoy the island too. It's very colourful and a lot of sunshine and a blue sea.

Speaker 219:29

They come.

Speaker 219:33

Birthday

Presenter19:33

A birthday every day.

Speaker 219:35

Yes.

Presenter19:36

What's so beautiful about a birthday if there's some special treat on your birthday?

Speaker 219:40

I would like hamburgers jumping down from airplane which dropping the sea and never get wet.

Presenter19:46

Waterproof hamburgers dropping down from an aeroplane every day.

Speaker 219:50

Yeah.

Presenter19:50

Oh, that's a lovely treat, isn't it? And what about a book? Every castaway is allowed one book. What do you choose?

Speaker 219:57

A nice thick book of fairy tales.

Presenter20:00

A big thick book of fairy tales, the biggest and thickest we can find.

Speaker 220:04

Yes.

Presenter20:05

Uh

Presenter20:06

Well, there's your luxury and your book. Now your record, your one record for a desert island. What is it?

Speaker 220:12

Where?

Presenter20:13

Wham, and what are they playing?

Speaker 220:15

Wake me up fire go, go.

Presenter20:17

Okay.

Presenter20:25

Charlotte's Choice Before You Go Go Buy Wham.

Presenter20:30

Now, you've got to lose one of your discs, because we've only got time for eight altogether, Jim.

Jimmy Savile20:34

Well, okay, I will forfeit a record and I might just take Charlotte instead and she can do the fishing.

Jimmy Savile20:43

And all the washing up.

Presenter20:44

What's your next record?

Jimmy Savile20:45

My next record is.

Jimmy Savile20:48

a record that would remind me of a goal that I had early on in life that I never ever thought that would be achieved, but I never ever thought it wouldn't be. It's one of those peculiarities, as follows.

Speaker 121:00

As follows.

Jimmy Savile21:01

When I was well skint, which is what I was in the early days, because when I was working down the pit.

Jimmy Savile21:07

After seven and a half years, I was getting the magnificent sum of two pounds a week. That was for six shifts.

Jimmy Savile21:14

And I was a great lover of things shiny and luxurious. Not that I'd ever tasted them or enjoyed them or even been anywhere near them, but I saw pictures of them. And this is in the days before television. And on the inside of my wardrobe, I stuck the picture of a Rolls-Royce that I tore from a magazine. And every time I opened the wardrobe cupboard, there was the picture of the roller. And it never occurred to me I'd ever get one, and it never occurred to me that I wouldn't get one.

Jimmy Savile21:44

And eventually

Jimmy Savile21:45

When

Jimmy Savile21:47

The phenomenon of the pop business came up, etcetera, and we produced the first Rolls-Royce, of which I've now had twelve

Jimmy Savile21:55

New ones. It then occurred to me that I didn't mind making money.

Jimmy Savile22:00

For me

Jimmy Savile22:01

or somebody else. As long as I was having a go at making money.

Jimmy Savile22:06

It pleased me. This is because of the family atmosphere of running charitable things, right? So I then set to work with the will to make millions of pounds, which we did, ninety percent of which has gone to other people, thank goodness, so at least I might possibly have the priorities right. So who wants to be a millionaire? Well.

Jimmy Savile22:27

I did.

Presenter22:31

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Frank Sinatra with Celeste Holmes.

Presenter22:36

How are you going to manage on this island, Jim? Are you a practical person? You good with your hands? Can you build a shelter? Now No, just like that.

Jimmy Savile22:43

No good with the hands. I would probably burrow into the sand.

Jimmy Savile22:49

And to keep warm in the evening time I'd probably do a quick half marathon round the beaches. How many miles a year do you do?

Jimmy Savile22:59

I last year ran 10 international marathons and 11 half marathons, which is absurdly more than a proper athlete would do. An athlete would probably do maybe one or two or three at the most. But I run for fun because once you've been

Jimmy Savile23:17

poorly in life and the good Lord gives you a second chance, you revel in the fact that you are fit and able. So not being a practical person but being a bit physical

Jimmy Savile23:28

In its simplistic form, a little bit of jogging on the beach would do for me. Right. What are you going to eat? Done any fishing? Nope. I am not a producer or a provider even.

Jimmy Savile23:39

So I don't know. I mean, I might just

Jimmy Savile23:42

Get Charlotte to throw some stones at coconut trees or I might get her to shake them or whatever,'cause I couldn't do anything at all like that. I would uh probably invent a new diet, which would be uh uh grasses, bark

Jimmy Savile23:59

And I think I'll be very hungry.

Jimmy Savile24:02

Would you try to get away?

Jimmy Savile24:04

Would you try to float off in a raft? Not really. Only if the raft was fastened to the Canberra or something like that, because I would much rather be in trouble on a beach than I'd be in trouble on top of 30 fathoms of water. So I'd better stay where I am. I agree with you. What's your last record? My last record would be that there was I lying on the beach in the sunshine, having listened to all those marvellous memory records, and I'd think, yes, it was a good place that I left.

Jimmy Savile24:38

In fact, it was a great place it was called Great Britain.

Jimmy Savile24:42

and occasionally we had things there called promenade concerts, and at the end of these spectacular concerts thousands of great British voices were raised in a paean of praise for the land in which they were so happy to live, and that would do for me.

Presenter25:00

James Lockern conducting everybody at The Last Prom.

Presenter25:05

If you could take only one of your seven disks, which

Jimmy Savile25:09

Which would it be, Jim? I think it would be the last one because it contains so many voices of so many happy people. Right.

Presenter25:16

And one luxury to have on the island, one object of no practical use that will give you pleasure to have around.

Jimmy Savile25:23

Yeah.

Presenter25:24

Uh

Jimmy Savile25:24

Well, if I didn't have a box of matches or a lighter,

Jimmy Savile25:28

And couldn't make fire, then a luxury would be a nice Havana cigar, because I couldn't smoke it. And one book about

Presenter25:35

But from

Jimmy Savile25:36

The Bible

Presenter25:36

And the complete works of Shakespeare which are already on the island. A mail order catalogue. A British mail order catalogue.

Jimmy Savile25:43

Yeah.

Presenter25:43

so that you can dream about what you could send for.

Jimmy Savile25:46

Exactly.

Presenter25:46

Exactly.

Jimmy Savile25:46

Right. Has anybody ever chosen to take a mail-order catalogue with them? Never.

Presenter25:51

Okay.

Jimmy Savile25:51

Yeah. Ever a pioneer

Presenter25:52

Yeah.

Jimmy Savile25:53

Yeah, once again. How many how many years have you been running the program?

Presenter25:56

Well, several now, but I think it's a very good thing. Oh well, at least we you

Jimmy Savile26:00

Unique, a malord catalogue, folks.

Presenter26:01

Right. And thank you, Jimmy Savile and Charlotte, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs. We were most honored to be here.

Jimmy Savile26:10

Er and me was very honoured to be here, wasn't us?

Jimmy Savile26:14

What an example I'm setting to the go. Oh, thank you anyway. It was a great pleasure for us. Goodbye, everyone.