In the first of his comeback projects, Justin Lee Collins will attempt to regain his nice guy persona by playing beloved children’s television presenter Sir Jimmy Savile. The biography will air on Channel 5 who themselves are attempting to move away from the grotesque programming the channel is known for.
In recent weeks Collins’ reputation has been damaged by allegations of abuse from his former girlfriend, the Opps TV host hopes this will go some way to rehabilitate his public image, ‘Everybody loved Sir Jimmy Savile, especially the children but if anything he loved them more. In my research for the part everyone told me he had a special smile when kids were about. He’d always hug them, sometimes for up to ten minutes – then he would sniff their hair for a bit. He could also discipline them when he had to. If there was a rowdy kid at the show he would, with a glint in his eye, take that kid back into his dressing room. A few minutes later they would remerge and the child who was so full of a life a minute ago would now be silent, still and white, weirdly they wouldn’t let anyone touch them either. Jimmy called it tough love. I can’t think of a better part to prove I’m not some kind of sicko’
The Channel 5 commissioner said, ‘We have wrongly earned the reputation of showing awful, perverted television shows. Why Red Shoe Diaries is considered porn and Californication is called art when they both star David Duchovny I’ll never know. Regardless I believe this is just what we need to turn it around; you can’t find filth with this man.’
*This press release was issued before the ITV documentary Exposure: The Other Side Of Jimmy Savile aired. Justin Lee Collins and Channel 5 were unavailable for comment.
