Though we have seen and heard it all before, this two-part documentary gives voice to the Australian presenter’s many victims and asks questions of his enablers
here can be few people who, when the outpouring of allegations of historic child sexual abuse against the late Jimmy Savile began in 2012, did not at least acknowledge that there had always been something unsettling about the man, even if their only exposure to him was a few seconds of Jim’ll Fix It.
Karen Gardner was 16 in 1978 when she jumped at the chance to help in the filming of Star Games . She was assigned to assist Harris on the day and “for the first couple of hours he was lovely”. He then went on to assault her three times. She declines to say exactly what he did – a growing trend in these kinds of documentaries, and a pleasing sign of evolution in both survivors’ confidence and programme-makers’ attitudes – but notes that her period was due “and my breasts were very tender.
The programme follows what is now, sadly, an established formula. The entertainer’s career is outlined, salient points emphasised – Harris’s friendship with Savile and appearances on Jim’ll Fix It, plus his involvement with an anti-child abuse campaign where he urged children to tell a trusted adult about anything that was happening to them – and commentary supplied from TV insiders such as Michael Grade and Mark Lawson explaining the place the star had in the social firmament.
That we have seen and heard it all before in recent documentaries about celebrities doesn’t lessen its power but gives it cumulative strength. There are signs, too, that such documentaries are preparing to broaden their focus. The programmes about R Kelly have increasingly asked questions about his enablers – the people who helped him get the girls and keep them confined to his mansion, turning a blind eye to the obvious wrongdoing – and the many who colluded in Epstein’s horrors .
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