Steve Coogan is the double of sexual predator Jimmy Savile

Steve Coogan resumed work as disgraced TV presenter Jimmy Savile on Monday as filming commenced on a controversial new drama inspired by his rise to fame and posthumous fall from grace. 

With temperatures close to freezing across Lancashire, the actor, best known for his role as hapless Alan Partridge, filmed in the snow during an exterior location shoot in Manchester. 

Coogan, 56, will play Savile in forthcoming BBC drama The Reckoning, and his feathered fringed haircut and garish red tracksuit suggested he was portraying the deviant sexual predator during his 1970s heyday.  

Back on set: Steve Coogan resumed work as disgraced TV presenter Jimmy Savile on Monday as filming commenced on a controversial new drama inspired by his rise to fame and posthumous fall from grace

The actor was seen racing from the grounds of a parish church and making his way into an old fashioned phone box as cameras closely tracked his movements. 

As always Coogan’s looks had been radically changed, with a jutting prosthetic chin helping to sculpt  his otherwise conventional features into the leery, angular faced Savile. 

The decision to chronicle Savile’s life has come under fire from many, however BBC has stated that they worked with his victims and will portray a story ‘with sensitivity and respect’.

Out in the elements: With temperatures close to freezing across Lancashire, the actor, best known for his role as hapless Alan Partridge, filmed in the snow during an exterior location shoot in Manchester

Authentic: Coogan, 56, will play Savile in forthcoming BBC drama The Reckoning, and his feathered fringed haircut and garish red tracksuit suggested he was portraying the deviant sexual predator during his 1970s heyday

Make way: The actor was seen racing from the grounds of a parish church and making his way into an old fashioned phone box as cameras closely tracked his movements

Coogan previously explained in a statement the decision to play Savile was not one ‘I took lightly’.

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

Savile, who rose from a humble working-class upbringing to become one of British television’s biggest stars, passed away aged 84 in 2011.

In his final years, he fought to quell growing speculation about his illegal exploits throughout his illustrious career with the BBC – with victim testimony expected to be brought to life in the new drama.

A BBC-led inquiry into his actions found he had molested at least 72 children, some as young as eight, over a four decade campaign of sexual abuse with his first victim in 1959 and his last in 2006.

His horrific reign of abuse could be charted ‘in the corridors, canteens, staircases and dressing rooms of every BBC premises’, their 2016 report found.

Executive producer, Jeff Pope, said: ‘I think this is a story that has to be told. We must understand why a man like Jimmy Savile seemed to remain immune for so long to proper scrutiny and criminal investigation.

‘Steve has a unique ability to inhabit complex characters and will approach this role with the greatest care and integrity.’

The BBC also says it will draw on ‘extensive and wide-ranging research sources’ or the project, examining the lasting impact of Savile’s crimes and the ‘powerlessness’ his victims felt.

Piers Wenger Controller, of BBC Drama, added: ‘The story of Jimmy Savile is one of the most emotive and troubling of our times. We do not intend to sensationalise these crimes but to give voice to his victims.