According to Wikipedia Liz MacKean's life was short enough but still 20 years longer than the title on your picture implies. WP says she was born in 1964, not 1984.
Very interesting interview. I have my own Jimmy Savile story, which is very trivial but in some ways telling. In about 1994 or 1995 my wife and I spent a weekend in Scarborough, where I believe Savile had a flat, and one evening we ate a meal at a small, cheap, restaurant – a pizza place, from memory – which fits as he was notoriously mean – and he was there with a very young woman. I would say, again from memory, she might have been about 18 but could have been +/- 2 years. She was very heavily made up, so may well have been younger than she looked. Given the year, Savile would have been 68 or 69, but it was clearly a ‘date’ although I don’t recall any overtly sexual contact between them.
So far as I can recall, I wasn’t aware of any of the rumours surrounding him – for example, I don’t think I was aware of Lynn Barber’s 1990 profile, mentioned in the interview. I think I just thought of him as a slightly naff celebrity from my childhood in the 1970s (mainly Jim’ll Fix It).
Anyway, it was horrific. Savile imposed himself on the entire room, shouting and showing off, being horrible to the staff (I had/have the impression he was a regular there, and they were indulging him through gritted teeth). Meanwhile, the young woman he was with looked on at his antics with – it seemed – adoration and it certainly seemed as if his whole act was directed at impressing her. I think, though I am not certain this is an accurate memory, that he kept shouting ‘look at my beautiful girlfriend’. If not, then there were certainly similar references to the fact of being with her. The whole spectacle was revolting, and other people in the restaurant were looking around at each other in apparent disgust. We ate up as quickly as possible and left.
I’m not sure what this story illustrates, except that since it can hardly have been a one-off many other people must have witnessed something similar. It wasn’t a situation anyone could have intervened in, except maybe to have told him to shut up (though my recollection is that the atmosphere was such that, most likely, anyone doing so would have been told to leave by the owners) – and there was nothing overtly illegal in what he was doing. But it was putrid, nonetheless.
According to Wikipedia Liz MacKean's life was short enough but still 20 years longer than the title on your picture implies. WP says she was born in 1964, not 1984.
You’re absolutely right Ed. It was a typo, and now corrected.
Very interesting interview. I have my own Jimmy Savile story, which is very trivial but in some ways telling. In about 1994 or 1995 my wife and I spent a weekend in Scarborough, where I believe Savile had a flat, and one evening we ate a meal at a small, cheap, restaurant – a pizza place, from memory – which fits as he was notoriously mean – and he was there with a very young woman. I would say, again from memory, she might have been about 18 but could have been +/- 2 years. She was very heavily made up, so may well have been younger than she looked. Given the year, Savile would have been 68 or 69, but it was clearly a ‘date’ although I don’t recall any overtly sexual contact between them.
So far as I can recall, I wasn’t aware of any of the rumours surrounding him – for example, I don’t think I was aware of Lynn Barber’s 1990 profile, mentioned in the interview. I think I just thought of him as a slightly naff celebrity from my childhood in the 1970s (mainly Jim’ll Fix It).
Anyway, it was horrific. Savile imposed himself on the entire room, shouting and showing off, being horrible to the staff (I had/have the impression he was a regular there, and they were indulging him through gritted teeth). Meanwhile, the young woman he was with looked on at his antics with – it seemed – adoration and it certainly seemed as if his whole act was directed at impressing her. I think, though I am not certain this is an accurate memory, that he kept shouting ‘look at my beautiful girlfriend’. If not, then there were certainly similar references to the fact of being with her. The whole spectacle was revolting, and other people in the restaurant were looking around at each other in apparent disgust. We ate up as quickly as possible and left.
I’m not sure what this story illustrates, except that since it can hardly have been a one-off many other people must have witnessed something similar. It wasn’t a situation anyone could have intervened in, except maybe to have told him to shut up (though my recollection is that the atmosphere was such that, most likely, anyone doing so would have been told to leave by the owners) – and there was nothing overtly illegal in what he was doing. But it was putrid, nonetheless.
That’s a grim but revealing tale Chris. Thanks for sharing it.