Steve Coogan asked for ‘uncomfortable’ morgue scene to be changed in new Jimmy Savile series
Steve Coogan has revealed there was one 'uncomfortable' scene in The Reckoning which he asked to altered.
The actor, 57, portrays disgraced entertainer Jimmy Savile in the new four-part BBC series, which is set to premiere on 9 October.
Savile's crimes didn't come to light until after his death in 2011 at the age of 84, with allegations indicating that as many as 400 people were sexually violated and abused by the Jim'll Fix It host.
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Ahead of the show's release tomorrow, Steve has admitted there was one particular scene that was 'really disturbing' to film, leading to him asking for it to be changed.
The scene Steve is referring to is set in a mortuary at Leeds hospital - which Savile used to visit regularly - and sees him place his hand under a sheet covering a corpse of an elderly woman.
At a recent press event for The Reckoning, Steve explained that the original plan for the scene featured a shot that he wanted to avoid.
"In that morgue scene, there was a certain shot they wanted to do that I didn’t want to do," the actor admitted.
He added: "It was just a detail that I was uncomfortable with, so I had a conversation with the director and we came to an agreement on what was the most appropriate way to depict it."
In regard to portraying Savile's offences, Steve said there was 'no right or wrong answer' but he felt a responsibility to share his 'opinion about what the right thing to do is'.
Opening up about the role, he added: "There’s a tension between showing too much of Savile’s offences, and it being grotesque, or sugar-coating them, which is also wrong [as we won’t] see the horror of what he did.
"So you have to strike that balance – you don’t want to upset survivors and you don’t want to anaesthetise the full effect."
Neil McKay, a writer who worked on The Reckoning, said he thought the team had found the 'right balance' with the final result for the scene.
He also added: "I think it would have been wrong and untrue to not show it."
The Reckoning was met with backlash after it was announced, but Steve has defended the series, saying it's 'better to talk about something than not'.
"It is controversial and I understand that," Coogan told Radio Times. "The BBC are damned if they do and damned if they don’t, and I believe the correct choice is to be damned if they do. Broadly, it’s better to talk about something than not."
He added: "The team had the right attitude and it was done with the cooperation of survivors."
Topics: Jimmy Savile, BBC, TV and Film
Danni King