As I write this post I am currently halfway through watching the docudrama, The Reckoning, about the shamed former DJ and sexual predator that was Jimmy Savile. It makes for quite chilling viewing when we realise he was hiding in plain sight.

For the record I feel it is a good depiction of, if you will pardon my French, the vile old fucker who my mam always felt was a creepy old git whenever she saw him on TV in the 1970s.

When I first started working at the Scarborough News I was immediately aware that he had a flat in the South Bay and he was held in quite high esteem by my editor.

I actually met him on a couple of occasions and, with the benefit of hindsight, he did come across as a creepy old man – but the tales told by my female colleagues, who came into dreaded contact with him, he was considered as nothing less than a sinister threat.

And, when his death was announced in October 2011, I remember the paper went big on his passing and published gushing tributes to him (my editor even said it would be the biggest story of my career) although, for the record, I felt at the time that maybe the importance of his death was maybe a bit overblown as I had covered much bigger stories such as the war in Afghanistan and Savile was a sinister and creepy old bloke.

I did cover his funeral in Scarborough – where he had wanted to be buried at a 45 degree angle so he could “have a good view of the sea” – and did laugh at the typo on his very expensive and ostentatious headstone.

Having said that, shortly after his ultimate and predictable demise, the revelations were unveiled in a TV documentary that he was a serial sexual predator.

I have to admit there were always rumours around Scarborough, but proving them was another story, and he was quickly removed from the roll of freeman of the borough and he even had the gold plaque outside his flat unceremoniously removed in disgrace.

Following a dramatic rise in events his headstone, as well as his grave, were also removed because of the potential threat of vandalism.

And, my reflection on watching the series, is that Steve Coogan gives a convincing and chilling performance as the nonce in chief who got away with it for so many years and the programme makers worked closely with the victims to faithfully and sympathetically tell their stories.

These were my thoughts on it in a post last year: Related article: A dramatic and rapid fall from grace