OBITUARY: Jimmy Savile (1926-2011)

To say that Jimmy Savile, the radio and television star who has died today aged 84, was an enigma is, perhaps, an understatement.

When I was a child Saturday evenings always began with Jim'll Fix It. He'd sit, dressed in tracksuit and bling (though it wasn't called bling back then), saying nonsensical things like "Now then, Now then!", puffing on a cigar (was it ever really lit?) and helping to make various people's dreams come true. Who can forget the Scouts eating a meal on the rollercoaster or the boys team beating Manchester United? To me, even then, he was always a little odd; there was something of Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang!'s child-catcher about him.

His media career had followed time as a coal miner and a failed wrestler. He was the first presenter of Top of the Pops (and, when that show came to an end, he was also it's its last).

Savile has been attributed with large amounts of charity work, including running many marathons (there are, however, stories that He would start and finish a lot of marathons but maybe didn't actually run the full 26 miles!).

His involvement in the Stoke Mandeville Hospital (where he had a suite of rooms!) and Broadmoor Secure Hospital are well-known but his connections appear to have included Prime Ministers, royalty and Israel politicians (he claims to have addressed the Israel cabinet a one point). For someone who was just an entertainer his influence appears to have been rather broad and questions about how have been raised at various points - Free Masonry seems to be the popular answer.

Savile was always keen to publicize himself; "surprise visits" to a hospital would be met by a television crew and he rarely missed an opportunity to tell others about his "good works".

He lived an odd and isolated life in Leeds and never quite recovered from his mother's death in 1973. The flat where "The Duchess" lived has been kept as she left it ever since and he had her clothes dry-cleaned annually, claiming that they're better than any photograph.

His private life, no partners and living by himself, has raised many questions. When Louis Theroux made a programme about him a few years ago, he seemed to find Savile a rate troubled and difficult person.

I suspect there's a lot that will come out over the coming months. Why, for instance, did Jimmy Savile have an injunction preventing News International from reporting, and using photographs, of his visits to the notorious children's home in Jersey where Wilfred Bramble, from Steptoe and Son, took part in child abuse?

There are many, many stories about Jimmy Savile that raise eyebrows, the truth will neve be known, but it's fair to say he was successful in his chosen careers. Whether his reputation will survive his death... Only time will tell.