When Louis Met... Jimmy (2000 TV Special)

Louis Theroux: Self - Presenter

Photos 

Quotes 

• Louis Theroux : So, why do you say in interviews that you hate children when I've seen you with kids and you clearly enjoy their company and you have a good rapport with them?

  Jimmy Savile : Right, obviously I don't hate 'em. That's number one.

  Louis Theroux : Yeah. So why would you say that then?

  Jimmy Savile : Because 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 Theroux : Are you basically saying that so tabloids don't, you know, pursue this whole 'Is he/isn't he a paedophile?' line, basically?

  Jimmy Savile : Yes, yes, yes. Oh, aye. How do they know whether I am or not? How does anybody know whether I am? Nobody knows whether I am or not. I know I'm not, so I can tell you from experience that the easy way of doing it when they're saying "Oh, you have all them children on Jim'll Fix It", say "Yeah, I hate 'em."

  Louis Theroux : Yeah. To me that sounds more, sort of, suspicious in a way though, because it seems so implausible.

  Jimmy Savile : Well, that's my policy, that's the way it goes. That's what I do. And it's worked a dream.

  Louis Theroux : Has it worked?

  Jimmy Savile : A dream.

• Louis Theroux : Now, why you written my name and address on this pad?

  Jimmy Savile : Because I never knew whether you existed or not, you see, and somebody gave me the address and I thought, well if he doesn't exist, shall I send round some of my lads with strong Sicilian accents to speak with him?

  Louis Theroux : To break my legs?

  Jimmy Savile : No, no, no, no, just to speak with you.

  Louis Theroux : How did you get the address?

  Jimmy Savile : I'll get anything, me.

  Louis Theroux : How did you get it though?

  Jimmy Savile : I can get anything. There's nothing I can't get, and there's nothing I can't do. Thank you. Don't worry, it's safe with me.

• Louis Theroux : [narrating]  Although I'd gone to bed, Will stayed up late with Jimmy. He began talking about his work as a dancehall manager in the Fifties.

  Jimmy Savile : In the dancehalls I invented zero tolerance, I wouldn't stand for any nonsense whatever - ever. Ever ever ever. I was always in trouble with the law for being heavy-handed. Always. But I couldn't care less about that.

  Will Yapp : [off-camera]  Ejecting people who were mucking about?

  Jimmy Savile : No, I never threw anybody out. Tied 'em up, and put them down in the bloody boilerhouse until I was ready for them, at 2 o'clock in the fucking morning. They'd plead to get out! Nobody ever got slung out of my place.

  Will Yapp : Tied them up and put them in the back?

  Jimmy Savile : Oh aye, yeah. Oh aye, bollocks to them, yeah. We'd tie 'em up and everybody would come back and I was the judge, jury and executioner.

  [the picture fades to a different point in the conversation] 

  Jimmy Savile : You know, if a copper came and said "You was a bit heavy with them, that kid or those two guys, whatever", I'd say "Your daughter comes in here, she's 16, she's not supposed to come into town but she does and she comes here. Presumably you'd like me to look after her, if you don't want me to look after her, tell me, and I'll let them dirty slags do what they want to her" "All right, Jim, all right, all right, all right" "All right, then. Don't give me a fucking hard time, then" "Yeah, you're right, you're right, you didn't give the bastard half enough, I'll tell you, Jim. Thank you, goodbye" And I never got nicked.

  [he chuckles] 

  Jimmy Savile : And I've never altered. I've got zero tolerance, me.

  [he lights another cigar] 

• [Jimmy is showing Louis his kitchen. Louis has peeked inside the fridge and the only piece of food in there is one chocolate biscuit] 

  Louis Theroux : Why don't you have more food?

  Jimmy Savile : Because there's plenty of cafés.

  Louis Theroux : Why is there no cooker in here?

  Jimmy Savile : Cooker means people, means making food, means washing up, means... ladies clattering and banging. No cooker, babe, no brain damage.

  Louis Theroux : What about if you're entertaining, if you have friends round for dinner, what do you cook them?

  Jimmy Savile : I don't have them sort of friends, and I don't have them sort of nights.

• Louis Theroux : [narrating]  A difference of opinion over the things we should be talking about was starting to emerge.

  Jimmy Savile : It's a lot easier to make negative TV shows than it is to make positive ones. And if we are doing nice things and good things and happy things, imagine how many millions of people you will cheer up and will say "That Louis Theroux, he's a fabulous geezer, he doesn't just interview unusual people that leaves us with nothing except how unusual they are, look at the wisdom he extracted."

  Louis Theroux : Yeah, yeah, yeah. It can't all be positive though, can it? I mean, that's just not reality.

  Jimmy Savile : Oh that's alright, make it as negative as you like! That's alright, see you in court. Take a few quid off you sir, take a few quid off anybody. Money has no conscience.

• [Jimmy shows Louis inside his deceased mother's bedroom at his flat in Scarborough] 

  Jimmy Savile : [opening a wardrobe with his mother's clothes inside, sealed in plastic covers]  Now, my cleaner takes them out and gets them freshened up about once a year. Now all this gear was gear she wore, so instead of slinging it away I thought I'd hang onto it because these make better souvenirs than photographs. These are much nicer than photographs. So, there, there... all the gear there.

  Louis Theroux : Can we take some of them out?

  Jimmy Savile : Well, not really - well, what do you wanna take them out for, do you wanna wear 'em?

• Louis Theroux : Were you that keen and excited to be involved in this project?

  Jimmy Savile : Yes, yes.

  Louis Theroux : Why?

  Jimmy Savile : I don't know, I don't know. But I quite like the idea of it. Because I'm odd, you're different, that's not a bad double. Between us we should be able to do something.

• Louis Theroux : Do you live here on your own?

  Jimmy Savile : Yes!

  Louis Theroux : So you don't have a wife and family?

  Jimmy Savile : No. None whatsoever. I leave that to other people.

  Louis Theroux : Why?

  Jimmy Savile : Haven't the faintest idea. I don't know. But I do like the idea of getting up in the morning with just me to look after and going to bed at night and not having any brain damage.

  Louis Theroux : Why would you have brain damage?

  Jimmy Savile : Because, the girls I know specialize in brain damage. Wonderful, that's what makes them interesting...

  Louis Theroux : What does that mean? I don't understand what that means.

  Jimmy Savile : Well, they drive me potty.

  Louis Theroux : Really?

  Jimmy Savile : Oooh, aye!

• Jimmy Savile : When I come in, I always go... I'm coming through the door, I always go "All right, darling" Which is a greeting as I walk past the door. So it's a friendly thing, it's not morbid, and it's not anything like that, it's totally friendly. So there.

  Louis Theroux : Yeah.

  Jimmy Savile : Now, out here...

  Louis Theroux : But Jimmy... are you quite keen to get away from this?

  Jimmy Savile : No, no, no. I'm quite happy to sit here, forever.

  [he sits on the bed] 

  Louis Theroux : Why are you becoming a little bit passive-aggressive?

  Jimmy Savile : Because, because I'm just thinking of the time factor.

  [the camera goes back to his mother's wardrobe] 

  Jimmy Savile : I think they're much nicer than photographs. Different class, wonderful. But they give me great pleasure, they don't give me any morbidity or anything like that.

  Louis Theroux : Yeah. Just so you know... I didn't even bring up morbidity.

  Jimmy Savile : No, well, that's all right then.

  Louis Theroux : So why are you bringing it up?

  Jimmy Savile : Just the way your face looks.

  Louis Theroux : Well, I don't want to be disrespectful, it's obviously... the room which is closest to your mother, the most important person in your life.

  Jimmy Savile : No, no, no, you see, because it's not her room that's important, it's the whole ethos, the fact that we were together for all our lives, that's the important bit.

• Louis Theroux : You also used to be a wrestler, is that right?

  Jimmy Savile : Still am.

  Louis Theroux : Still am?

  Jimmy Savile : I'm feared in every girls' school in Britain.

• Louis Theroux : Shouldn't you do your shoelaces up?

  Jimmy Savile : No, nobody could give me a good reason why I do shoelaces up.

  Louis Theroux : Because otherwise you trip over them.

  Jimmy Savile : The laces aren't long enough. Next!

• Jimmy Savile : [peering through his front door letterbox]  Hello? Who is it?

  Louis Theroux : [kneeling down to look through the letterbox]  Jimmy, how's it going? Can we come in?

  Jimmy Savile : I don't believe you exist.

• Jimmy Savile : [packing his suitcase]  Cigars, bigger ones for the TV and newspapers.

  Louis Theroux : Why is it better to have a big one for the TV and the newspapers?

  Jimmy Savile : Cos it sticks out more on the television.

  Louis Theroux : [holding up a packet of Durex, smirking]  Pack of condoms, is that...

  Jimmy Savile : Whoa! Hope springs eternal in the human breast. Especially if you're single.

• Louis Theroux : So we're in Scarborough, right, and this was the Duchess's residence, was it - your mother when she was alive?

  Jimmy Savile : I bought it because I liked it. She came to live here because she liked it.

  Louis Theroux : Did you argue much when you were living together?

  Jimmy Savile : Never.

  Louis Theroux : Never?

  Jimmy Savile : Never.

  Louis Theroux : Bicker?

  Jimmy Savile : No point in arguing.

  Louis Theroux : And what about if you had a girl with you?

  Jimmy Savile : Uh, she would have actually killed the girl.

• Louis Theroux : Why have you said in interviews that you don't have emotions?

  Jimmy Savile : Because it's easier. It's easier. You say you've emotions then you've got to explain 'em for two hours. The truth is I'm very good at masking them.

• Louis Theroux : [narrating]  I had a feeling that so far we weren't bringing out the best in each other. He didn't seem to trust me. And, truth be told, I was finding him slightly irritating. I felt he was using his patter to deflect my questions. But I'd had glimpses of another Jimmy underneath.

• Louis Theroux : [opens a drawer and finds a bunch of photo albums]  Whoa... look, Jimmy! This is a treasure trove!

  Jimmy Savile : Is it? Yeah?

  Louis Theroux : Here's you with a sweetheart.

  Jimmy Savile : Good.

  Louis Theroux : Have you ever been linked to anyone in the press?

  Jimmy Savile : No.

  Louis Theroux : Your love life has never been in any way discussed, has it?

  Jimmy Savile : No.

  Louis Theroux : Why do you think that is?

  Jimmy Savile : Haven't the faintest idea. Ask the press.

  Louis Theroux : But I'm asking you.

  Jimmy Savile : Right, you're asking me. I don't know why I've never been linked with anybody. Probably because I've never been linked *to* anybody.

  Louis Theroux : 'Cause you're discreet?

  Jimmy Savile : No, I've never been linked to anybody.

  Louis Theroux : Meaning?

  Jimmy Savile : Discreet means you are trying to hide something. I don't want to hide anything.

  Louis Theroux : Do you mean to say that you've never ever, ever, ever had a girlfriend?

  Jimmy Savile : Friends that are girls, eight million.

  Louis Theroux : Yeah.

  Jimmy Savile : Friends that are girls, yeah, but "girlfriend" in the sense of today, ie. you are together, you don't bother with anybody else, et cetera, no, never. Never.

  Louis Theroux : Not even for, like, a week?

  Jimmy Savile : No, not even for a week. No.

• Jimmy Savile : [pointing at his bed]  The altar. That's the altar, there.

  Louis Theroux : Why do you call it the altar?

  Jimmy Savile : Because I go to sleep in it, and I smile, and it's nice to be there.

  Louis Theroux : Yeah. That doesn't sound like an altar to me.

  Jimmy Savile : Well, it just sounds like one to me.

  Louis Theroux : [smiling]  Really?

  Jimmy Savile : Yes.

  Louis Theroux : The altar, is that because you sacrifice people on the altar?

  Jimmy Savile : No, no, no, no, that's negative, I'm positive.

• Louis Theroux : I was looking for a mug just now, can I show you what I found?

  [Louis opens a cupboard revealing liquor bottles inside and takes out a couple] 

  Louis Theroux : A secret cache of booze. It's been touched.

  Jimmy Savile : Now then, ask me, ask me what they are. You see, a good interviewer always asks questions, he never opinionates before the answer, because the answer might make him look a bit silly.

  Louis Theroux : Yeah, so what's the answer?

  Jimmy Savile : Now then, ask me the question first. Take the first bottle.

  Louis Theroux : Why do you have a bottle of Captain Morgan rum in your... For a teetotaller that looks odd.

  Jimmy Savile : No, no, you see, you're opinionating again. Are you asking the question or are you telling me? Which are you doing?

  Louis Theroux : Um, why have you got Captain Morgan rum in your cupboard?

  Jimmy Savile : Because, my eldest brother, Vince, who is in his 80s, 36 years Royal Navy, and now lives in a super home here in Leeds, and he dearly beloves the rum. Now you see, isn't it better when you ask questions?

  Louis Theroux : Well, it is and it isn't because I thought we were having a conversation, Jimmy.

  Jimmy Savile : Well, we are in a conversation. But you see, it's not a conversation when there is accusation to start with. "What are you doing" you said, "as a teetotaller, with half empty bottles of booze!"

  Louis Theroux : [smiling]  Yeah, yeah. You didn't like that.

  Jimmy Savile : Oh, I loved it.

  Louis Theroux : You didn't.

  Jimmy Savile : I loved it 'cos I tried to help you!

  [Louis laughs] 

  Jimmy Savile : My job in life is to try to help people.

  Louis Theroux : You didn't like it.

  Jimmy Savile : I loved it. Next!

  Louis Theroux : Next... Don't start that.

  Jimmy Savile : [claps his hands]  Ah, ha ha ha ha! He didn't like that either! Ha ha ha ha ha! I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it! Ha ha ha.

• Louis Theroux : [narrating]  We'd been together for a week, and it was now time for me to go. To my surprise, I was sorry to say goodbye. I had a newfound respect for Jimmy, and although I still didn't feel that close to him, I thought that probably made me no different to anyone else in his life.

  [Louis holds a "Jim Fixed It For Me" medallion] 

  Louis Theroux : This would be a very nice parting gift.

  Jimmy Savile : Nobody ever got a Fix It badge unless I did them a Fix It.

  Louis Theroux : You have Fixed It for me.

  Jimmy Savile : No, I haven't. No I haven't. That's number one...

  Louis Theroux : You've Fixed It for me to hang out with you.

  Jimmy Savile : Number Two - if you think you're walking out of my life then you've got another thing coming, because in the time that we've been together, I have come to depend on you, and lean on you.

  [he actually leans on Louis] 

  Jimmy Savile : And lean on you.

  Louis Theroux : Yeah, you've gone a bit schmaltzy now.

• Louis Theroux : How are you feeling?

  Jimmy Savile : Regularly. How are you?

  Louis Theroux : Not too bad.

  Jimmy Savile : Marvelous. I'm like a butcher's dog, as it happens, and there's nothing more fitter and stronger than a butcher's dog. All the scraps, all the bones, all the hair... Mmm! That's it.

• [Louis is getting ready for bed in Jimmy's mother's old bedroom at his Scarborough flat] 

  Louis Theroux : [whispering to the cameraman]  This isn't the bed she died in, is it?

• Louis Theroux : Did that not cramp your style a little bit?

  Jimmy Savile : No, not at all.

  Louis Theroux : Since you couldn't bring girls home because your mum wouldn't let you sleep with women?

  Jimmy Savile : No, I didn't want to sleep with them. Good heavens. I want to be with them, anything more than two hours, brain damage.

  Louis Theroux : Yeah, whatever though...

  Jimmy Savile : Yeees!

  Louis Theroux : You couldn't canoodle with them because your mum wouldn't put up with it?

  Jimmy Savile : [pointing out the window]  No, no, but if you see over there on the horizon...

  Louis Theroux : Did that not cramp your style a bit, Jimmy?

  Jimmy Savile : I'll answer the question. If you see over there on the horizon... a caravan camp.

  Louis Theroux : [goes to look out the window]  Yeah.

  Jimmy Savile : I had a caravan there. So that was the... the, the love nest.

  Louis Theroux : So you couldn't bring girls back here really, because...

  Jimmy Savile : I wouldn't do that because it's a lack of respect.

  Louis Theroux : For your mum?

  Jimmy Savile : Yes.

  Louis Theroux : Really?

  Jimmy Savile : A lack of respect.

• Louis Theroux : [narrating]  As night fell, I wondered about the Duchess and Jimmy's lack of girlfriends. It struck me that, for Jimmy, no woman has ever measured up to his mother. Almost 30 years on from her death, she's still the most important person in his life.

• Louis Theroux : [narrating]  We'd booked rooms at the hotel since we'd all had a few drinks, but Jimmy wouldn't hear of staying indoors. His home from home was his camper van.

  [Jimmy is getting into his old Volkswagen camper van parked outside the hotel in the Scottish highlands] 

  Louis Theroux : Are you seriously going to kip in here? Because we've got you a room.

  Jimmy Savile : I'm glad about that. This is much better than any room that was ever invented. Ladies and gentleman... bonsoir messieurs et madames.

  Louis Theroux : Are you really going to sleep with your hat on?

  Jimmy Savile : [pulling the drawstring on his hat's side flaps]  Yes. But I actually do this. I pull it up like that.

  Louis Theroux : For real?

  Jimmy Savile : Oh yeah. And the coat and this tracksuit and the gear and the shoes, wonderful. I used to sleep outside Broadcasting House.

  Louis Theroux : Did you?

  Jimmy Savile : The vehicle was parked outside Broadcasting House. I would walk out of the studio, into the caravan, and there I was, home. Tumpy- tumpy-tum, tumpy- tumpy-tum. Stayed there for a week and the walked back into Broadcasting House.

  Louis Theroux : [incredulous]  Why?

  Jimmy Savile : I love it, I love it.

• Louis Theroux : What do you chat about with the Queen?

  Jimmy Savile : All sorts of things.

  Louis Theroux : Like?

  Jimmy Savile : Like, like... What we chat about is a no-go area, so therefore that's what we chat about.

  Louis Theroux : Meaning?

  Jimmy Savile : Meaning that's what it is. I'm not a grass. I don't tell...

  Louis Theroux : Then it would indiscreet of you to chat about that?

  Jimmy Savile : Oh, no, no, no, no. I would be a grass. I'm not a grass. I'm anything but a grass. You could tell me the deepest thing of your life and my lips would be sealed, omertà.

• Jimmy Savile : [introducing his friend Jim the Pill to Louis]  This is the world-famous Louis, who is the piranha fish of all interviewers.

  Louis Theroux : That's not true, Jimmy.

  Jimmy Savile : The piranha fish, he's the piranha fish of all interviewers.

  Jim the Pill : Well, you've come to the right place.

• Jimmy Savile : [packing his suitcase]  ... one shirt, and then I'm packed up.

  Louis Theroux : No underpants?

  Jimmy Savile : Got 'em on - wash 'em every night, dry through the night, clean the next day. Never take gear you don't really need. Travel light.

  Louis Theroux : You really do that?

  Jimmy Savile : Yes. Nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with that. You wash everything in the night when you get in the shower, hang it all up, and it's dry in the morning. Complete new set, fresh smelling.

  [calling his friend who has just arrived at the flat] 

  Jimmy Savile : Jim the Pill!

  Louis Theroux : What will you use to wash the pants with?

  Jimmy Savile : Water.

  Louis Theroux : Just water?

  Jimmy Savile : No, soap and things... Jim the Pill, where are you?

  Jim the Pill : [from another room]  I'm here!

  Jimmy Savile : Come here!

  Louis Theroux : [still not letting the underpants topic go]  Just hand soap?

• Louis Theroux : [narrating]  Jimmy said he'd be up by 7 the next morning, but by 8:30 he still hadn't materialised, and I was becoming concerned.

  [Louis goes to Jimmy's old Volkswagen camper van parked outside the hotel. It's windows are misted up] 

  Louis Theroux : [walking around the van]  Jimmy. Where is he? Can you see him?

  [suddenly Jimmy slides open a window to reveal himself. The cameraman gasps in surprise, Louis laughs] 

  Louis Theroux : How you doing?

  Jimmy Savile : Morning, team!

  Louis Theroux : How did you sleep?

  Jimmy Savile : Well, sometimes on my back and sometimes on my side.

  Louis Theroux : Were you all right? I was getting a little bit worried.

  Jimmy Savile : You would indeed, but you're a townie.

  Louis Theroux : You weren't cold, then?

  Jimmy Savile : Course I was. Naturally.

  Louis Theroux : You were cold?

  Jimmy Savile : It was eight below, it dropped to eight below.

  Louis Theroux : On reflection, do you wish you'd stayed in here?

  Jimmy Savile : Sleeping in here is different class to sleeping in a building. This is living, that is existing. But you won't know that till it's too late, lad. Until it's too late.

• Louis Theroux : [Jimmy is smoking a cigar when on a treadmill]  Is that advisable, to smoke while you're exercising?

  Jimmy Savile : No.

• Louis Theroux : So Jim's coming as your...

  Jimmy Savile : Friend.

  Louis Theroux : Friend? Friend?

  Jimmy Savile : Friend. But may be pressed into service, who knows.

  Louis Theroux : How do you feel about that, Jim?

  Jim the Pill : Well, er, I've done it before and it's er... Jimmy always says "Wherever I'm invited, you're invited." So I get invited to all these rather fancy cocktail parties on board ship. Of course, we even get in the Captain's personal quarters from time to time.

  Louis Theroux : Do you? Late at night?

  Jimmy Savile : No! None of that.

  [Louis laughs] 

  Jimmy Savile : [to Jim the Pill, pointing at Louis]  What did I tell you about these people?

  Jim the Pill : "Late at night?"!

  Jimmy Savile : Don't they keep lifting the toilet lid of life? They keep lifting the toilet lid of life.