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29 October 2011updated 27 Sep 2015 3:58am

Jimmy Savile, the YouTube tribute

Showaddywaddy, jingle jangle, Jim'll Fix It, Top of the Pops, Clunk Click.

By Jon Bernstein

Showaddywaddy, jingle jangle, Jim’ll Fix It, Top of the Pops, Clunk Click.{C}

The former DJ and TV presenter Jimmy Savile died at his home in Leeds earlier today, aged 84.

Savile was the first host of Top of the Pops in 1964 but for a certain generation of TV viewer he will be remembered for presenting Jim’ll Fix It on a Saturday night.

In the era of three channel television the viewing figures were huge and the postbag, according to this tribute on the BBC website, hit 20,000 letters a week at the height of the programme’s popularity.

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In a terribly 2011 way, a quick browse on YouTube provides a telling potted history of a career.

Indeed put “Jimmy Savile” (or the more-frequently misspelled “Jimmy Saville”) into the video sharing search engine and the auto-complete function does a rather good job of capturing a lifetime in the public eye:

showaddywaddy; jingle jangle; top of the pops; louis theroux; impression; now then now then; jim’ll fix it; wrestling; have I got news for you; clunk click.

No mention of his marathon running but not a bad summary. If you’re not sure of the references, look them up.

 

Rather than a Jim’ll Fix It video, here’s a Public Information Film from the same era that has taken on a similarly iconic status. Remember: “Clunk Click, Every Trip”:

 

 

Jimmy Savile, 31 October 1926 — 29 October 2011.

 

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