Sir Jimmy Saville.

Some moons ago I was watching an episode of Never Mind The Buzzcocks presented by Simon Amstell (so somewhere between 2006 – 2009, or was it earlier and Mark Lamarr?)  where the general dirge of conversation turned to a still alive Jimmy Saville.

After a few mandatory funny jokes about the weirdness of Sir Jimmy I noticed that the show had been cut and pasted to a different point in the episode; panel contestants had shifted in their seats massively, their character and behaviour having gone from lively to calm and sedated; the conversation that had started on Jimmy Saville had been promptly cut short and the take restarted at the next round of the quiz.

Whilst I am certain cutting panel quiz shows down to size is common practice I have never in several years seen it so obviously done.

Aunty Beeb knew about this. A huge number of entertainment professionals in the industry knew about this (hence the redirection of the panel from engaging in mere innuendo about Mr. Saville’s proclivities to something more meaty) – the scandal was big enough for a relatively minor BBC2 panel show could get some exec/producer killing the unsavoury bits (and as any avid watcher will know this show can get unsavoury) before broadcast.

More to come methinks.