126 Clunk Click

First  watched : 1973

Hmm ... yes....well... what  do  we  say  about  this  one ?

Well  it  was  one  an  odd  proposition  from  the  off,  a  variety-cum-chat  show  hosted  by  a professional  eccentric ,  normally  a  disc  jockey, and  named  after  the  slogan  for  a  public  safety  campaign  on  seat  belts  that  he  was  fronting. The  show  pandered  to  Savile's  ego  by  giving  him  a  chair-cum-throne   to  sit  on  with  tacky  gimmicks  in  the  arms.

For  obvious  reasons  there  isn't  too  much  footage  around  but  you  can  find  bits  here  and  there  such  as  Pan's  People's  appearance  ( above ) which  drew  complaints  from  Mary  Whitehouse  about  their  revealing  dresses. The  selection  of  the  Song  for  Europe  in  1974  to  be  sung  by  Olivia  Newton-John  took  place  on  the  programme  and  it's  notable  how  cowed  and  uncomfortable  - though  he  was  always  clumsy  when  he  had  to  engage  in  normal  conversation -  he  seemed  when  interviewing  a  beautiful  adult  woman.

The  other  thing  that  strikes  you  about  the  interview  extracts  is  how  religious  he  was,  with  frequent  references  to  "the  Good  Lord",  particularly  evident  in  a  toe-curling  encounter  with  a  young  Yuri  Geller.  You  can't  imagine  any  modern  day  host  being  allowed  to  proselytise  so  much. Cynics  who  say  this  was  just  a  part  of  the  "front"  for  his  nefarious  activities  off  screen   know  nothing  about  Catholicism. Jimmy  Savile  didn't  run  punishing  marathons  in  late  middle  age  just  to  throw  people  off  the  scent  - there  were  far  easier  ways  to  do  that ;  they  were  an  attempt  to  balance  the  scales  with  God, do  enough  good  works  to make  up  for  his  sexual  weaknesses. We  can't  know  whether  it  was  successful.

The  show  lasted  for  two  series  before  it  morphed  into  Jim'll  Fix  It.