The Reckoning (2023 TV series)
The Reckoning is a British television drama mini-series based on the life of the British media personality Jimmy Savile, portrayed by Steve Coogan. It covers Savile's career from the early 1960s to his death in 2011, and the sexual abuse that he committed without being prosecuted during his lifetime. It is based in part on the book In Plain Sight: the Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile by Dan Davies. The series caused controversy during its production and was first broadcast on BBC One in October 2023. It received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for Coogan's portrayal of Savile. Premise
The four, hour-long episodes chronicle the life of Jimmy Savile, who was one of the best-known radio and television personalities in Britain for much of his life. After his death, it emerged that he had been a prolific predator and sex offender. The series covers Savile's upbringing, career and sexual offences. Four real life survivors of Savile's abuse appear in the series, speaking at the beginning and end of some of the episodes. Each episode has scenes where writer Dan Davies (played by Mark Stanley) who is researching Savile for his book, interviews him in various locations. Cast
Steve Coogan as Jimmy Savile
Gemma Jones as Agnes Savile
Mark Stanley as Dan Davies
Robert Emms as Ray Teret
Michael Jibson as Bill Cotton
Julian Rhind-Tutt as Johnnie Stewart
Faye McKeever as Alison
Mark Lewis Jones as Charles Hullighan
Siobhan Finneran as Beryl Hullighan
Peter Wight as Peter Jaconelli 
Fenella Woolgar as Margaret Thatcher
Neil Pearson as Eric Morley

Episodes

Production
The production was announced in October 2020, and was criticised before filming was under way. Richard Morrison, writing in The Times, stated that, as it was commissioned by the BBC, it felt "less an act of contrition than of exploitation." Pragya Argawal, writing in The Independent, stated:Ben Lawrence, writing in The Daily Telegraph, said victims deserved "better than the kneejerk hysteria that has surfaced about The Reckoning", and that "... the question is not whether we should make a drama like The Reckoning, but how we do so." In September 2021, it was announced that Steve Coogan had been cast as Savile. Coogan, who previously voiced Savile on the satirical puppet show Spitting Image, and had met Savile in real life, said the decision to play Savile was "not one I took lightly", but felt that writer Neil McKay's script "tackled a horrific story which – however harrowing – needs to be told". Work on the production started in early October 2021, and included filming location scenes in North-West England and North Wales. During production, Coogan met with real life survivors of Savile's abuse, and reassured them when they saw him in character. Coogan asked the filmmakers to tone down a scene where Savile is implied to molest an elderly woman's dead body in a morgue, finding it too uncomfortable. In light of the controversy surrounding the series and the events regarding the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the drama was first expected to be broadcast by the BBC in 2022, before being pushed back to 2024 and then later brought forwards to 2023. At the time, a source said, “The four-part drama is being edited in such a meticulous and careful way, so as not to create more pain and suffering for Savile’s victims.” The series went to air on BBC One from 9 October, with all episodes available on iPlayer from the same date. The programme was presented as being partly fictionalised, with some characters and events created for dramatic purposes. Several scenes have been described in the Telegraph as embellished or false. In a subplot in Episode 2, Savile, after hosting an edition of Top of the Pops, rapes a young girl who subsequently kills herself with an overdose of pills. This incident is based on the suicide in 1971 of 15-year-old Claire McAlpine, who claimed to have been sexually abused by two disc jockeys: it is unclear whether Savile was one of her abusers. Critical receptionThe Reckoning received mixed reviews from television critics. In The Guardian, Lucy Mangan wrote that Coogan was "chillingly brilliant as Jimmy Savile", but that "to watch The Reckoning is to come away depressed but unenlightened". The series was criticised as gratuitous and for being shown on the BBC, which had shielded Savile in his lifetime. See alsoJimmy Savile: A British Horror Story''

References

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2023 British television series debuts
2023 British television series endings
2020s British crime drama television series
BBC crime drama television shows
2020s British television miniseries
English-language television shows
Television series by ITV Studios
Television shows set in England
Jimmy Savile
Television shows set in Leeds
Television shows set in London
Television shows set in North Yorkshire
Cultural depictions of Margaret Thatcher
Cultural depictions of presenters
Cultural depictions of British men