The Reckoning (2023 TV series)

The Reckoning is a British docudrama television miniseries that depicts the career and sexual crimes of British media personality Jimmy Savile, portrayed by Steve Coogan, from the early 1960s to his death in 2011. It is based in part on the book In Plain Sight: the Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile by Dan Davies.

The series sparked controversy during its production and was first broadcast on BBC One in October 2023. The Reckoning received mixed reviews, with praise for Coogan's portrayal of Savile.

Premise
The series recounts the career and sexual offences of Jimmy Savile, who was one of the best-known radio and television personalities in Britain during his life, and whose crimes emerged after his death. Four real-life survivors of Savile's abuse speak at the start and end of some of the episodes. Each episode has scenes taking place in the last years of Savile's life, primarily where writer Dan Davies, 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

Production
The production was announced in October 2020, and was criticised before filming was underway. 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:'' It also feels insidiously callous and thoughtless that an organisation that played a role in glorifying a sex offender and profiting from him [the BBC], while covering up his actions for many decades, are once again capitalising on his "brand" and the fascination that viewers have with monsters and true crime.

Ben Lawrence, writing in The Daily Telegraph, said the victims of Savile's crimes 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 Jimmy Savile. Coogan 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. Coogan, who later explained he had his head shaved for months during production, said that he was so uncomfortable playing Savile that he eventually was "pleased" when production finished.

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. 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.” It was later brought forward to 2023. The series went to air on BBC One from 9 October, with all episodes available on iPlayer from the same date. Coogan reportedly cancelled a string of book signings as Alan Partridge during the broadcast. 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 Asian 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. One of McAlpine’s friends said she was upset about the filmmakers' decision not to use her real name, and Mark Williams-Thomas criticised the casting of the character's race from white to Asian. Williams-Thomas was criticised for his comments about the character's race. The final scene of Savile dead in his armchair with his fingers crossed, is based on the claim that when Savile was found dead, he had a smile on his face and his fingers were crossed.

Critical reception
The Reckoning received mixed reviews from television critics, with most praising Coogan's performance. 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 was accused of having shielded Savile in his lifetime. John Nugent of Empire gave the series three out of five stars, describing it as a "tough watch, of course, made with obvious conscientiousness, centred around a deeply disturbing central performance from Steve Coogan. Whether this is the appropriate form of reckoning for such inconceivable crimes, however, should be up for debate." Louis Theroux, when asked on whether he thought the series was in "bad taste", said that he was "struck" by the series' attempt "to scrupulously adhere to the facts". He also praised Coogan's performance.

Coogan was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor in 2024.