BBC’s controversial Jimmy Savile drama is pushed back until 2024 due to ‘sensitivities’ 

BBC’s controversial Jimmy Savile drama chronicling his life and predatory behaviour has been delayed amid public backlash over the project.

Filming on The Reckoning, which stars Steve Coogan as Savile, started in November 2021 and ended in January 2022.

The four-part series was expected to hit screens this year. But it can now be revealed that the Corporation has chosen to push the premiere back until 2024.

Sources say the BBC are in such a panic that they’re going through the footage with a fine-tooth comb to ensure it’s perfect.

‘The sensitivities are such that the BBC know they absolutely have to get this 100 per cent right,’ the source said.

‘The four-part drama is being edited in such a meticulous and careful way, so as not to create further pain and suffering for the victims of Savile.’

Filming on The Reckoning, which stars Steve Coogan as Savile, started in November 2021 and ended in January 2022. Pictured: Savile in 1973

The paedophile’s hunting grounds were often the sets of BBC productions, including Top Of The Pops, serving as the greatest stain on the network’s history.

The Reckoning has been produced by leading dramatist Jeff Pope and is based on the book In Plain Sight by Dan Davies, who had the co-operation of some of Savile’s victims.

Organisations for the survivors of sexual abuse blasted the BBC for making ‘entertainment’ out of Savile’s crimes.

He died aged 84 in 2011.

Coogan, 55, who famously portrays fictional comedic character Alan Partridge, explained upon accepting the role the decision was not one ‘I took lightly’.

‘Neil McKay has written an intelligent script tackling sensitively a horrific story which, however harrowing, needs to be told.

Savile was a much loved public figure in life, but was exposed as a serial sexual predator following his death in 2011. Here he is pictured at the Wren House International Telephone Exchange in 1975

The four-part series was expected to hit screens this year. But it can now be revealed that the Corporation has chosen to push the premiere back until 2024. Pictured: Coogan during filming

‘He either hoodwinked us or, if you want to be unkind about us as a nation, the whole nation enabled him, because we elevated him, and did not subject him to the same scrutiny that we would ordinary people.’

Of the show, he said: ‘I’m pretty confident when it comes out it will justify itself.’

The BBC previously said it would draw on ‘extensive and wide-ranging research sources’ for the project, examining the lasting impact of Savile’s crimes and the ‘powerlessness’ his victims felt. 

Savile, who rose from a humble working-class upbringing to become one of British television’s biggest stars, molested at least 72 children, some as young as eight, over a four decade campaign of sexual abuse.

His first known victim was in 1959 and his last in 2006.

Victim testimony was expected to be brought to life in the new drama.

The BBC previously said it would draw on ‘extensive and wide-ranging research sources’ for the project, examining the lasting impact of Savile’s crimes and the ‘powerlessness’ his victims felt

A BBC-led inquiry into his actions found his horrific reign of abuse could be charted ‘in the corridors, canteens, staircases and dressing rooms of every BBC premises’.

In his final years, Savile fought to quell growing speculation about his illegal exploits throughout his illustrious career with the BBC.

Savile may have been one of Britain’s most prolific abusers

Accusers were dismissed, ignored or not believed and Savile even launched legal action against some of them.

But after his death, hundreds of allegations poured in. When investigated, police concluded he was a serial predatory offender and potentially one of Britain’s most prolific child abusers.

In the wake of the findings, the two charities he founded vowed to distribute their funds and close down.

Throughout his life, Savile had been praised for his charitable endeavours, raising an estimated £40 million for causes he believed in.

He also used his television connections to make friends in high up places – including the royal family and politicians. 

Most honours he received over the course of his lifetime were promptly – and rightly – rescinded following the revelation of his systemic abuse.