RIP: Sir Jimmy Savile, OBE

I was saddened to hear that Jimmy Savile passed away today at the age of 84. Most people in the US have probably never heard of him (unless you are a serious Anglophile), but he was a part of my childhood and youth growing up in the UK. Jimmy was one of the first DJs on BBC Radio One where he hosted shows from 1968-1987. I remember our family used to listen to his “Old Record Club” during Sunday lunch, where he would play the top ten records from past singles charts. He was also a regular presenter on “Top of the Pops,” BBC Television’s long-running chart countdown show. In fact, he hosted the very first episode in 1964, and also the final episode in 2006.

Aside from Top of the Pops, the TV show he is probably best remembered for (certainly by me) is “Jim’ll Fix It!” Each week, people young and old would write in with “dream-come-true” requests to meet a famous actor or singer, go skydiving, be a king for a day, etc., and somehow Jimmy would make it happen–sometimes quite creatively. Like the time a kid wrote in asking to burn a million pounds, so Jimmy arranged for him to go to a secret government location in the UK where they burn money that is no longer usable. So this kid actually got to shovel these bundles of currency into a furnace. I think I might have written in to Jim’ll Fix It to meet Paul McCartney, but my letter was never selected. Oh well.

Jimmy Savile will also be remembered for his charity work. He spent a lot of time running marathons, visiting hospitals, and engaging in all kinds of events to raise money for various needs, particularly for Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

By way of tribute, here is a clip from a 1985 episode of Jim’ll Fix It, where Jim fixed it for a young Doctor Who fan to meet his hero: