Steve Coogan did an impression of Jimmy Savile 35 years ago while sat right next to him

Steve Coogan once performed an impression of Jimmy Savile to his face years before playing him in The Reckoning.

The series itself was described by viewers as 'stomach churning' as it dramatised parts of Savile's life and the staggering amount of crimes he committed, though Coogan's performance received plenty of praise.

Disturbing as it was to see Savile's actions dramatised, viewers horror and revulsion was a testament to how well Coogan played his part.

Recently, footage of Coogan doing an impression of Savile with him in the room has resurfaced.

In 1988, a much younger Coogan appeared on Radio Aire's The James Whale Show alongside Savile and was called on to do his impression.

Radio Aire

Coogan was asked to 'do a quick impersonation of Jimmy while he's sat here' and the young actor obliged.

Adopting the voice of Savile he spoke the line 'it didn't get to number one but he was a number one guy', which Savile said he'd spoken in his first week working on radio about Cliff Richard.

Savile then held up a picture of him meeting Richard, saying he'd been sent the image by Radio Trent.

At the time Coogan would have had no idea that 35 years later he'd have been playing Savile in a drama showing the horrendous abuses he committed over the course of his life.

Coogan had acknowledged before the release of The Reckoning that there was a chance the whole thing could be a 'catastrophic failure' and said it wasn't an enjoyable experience to play Savile.

He'd explained prior to The Reckoning that there were 'probably a handful of people in the country who could who could play the part' and he counted himself among them.

Radio Aire

Coogan described the role as a 'professional challenge' and revealed that there were some scenes which he was incredibly 'uncomfortable' doing.

While scenes in The Reckoning were 'created for dramatic purposes' and the show acknowledges this right from the beginning what's disturbing is how close so much of it is to exactly what happened.

A great deal of what viewers saw on their screens in the series happened in real life and even the parts which didn't go exactly as The Reckoning showed were still incredibly similar to the truth.

The Reckoning features contributions from real-life survivors of Savile's abuse and they found Coogan's portrayal of the monstrous paedophile to be disturbing to the point that he had to reassure them he was acting and 'not him'.

Topics: Crime, Jimmy Savile, TV and Film, Celebrity

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker