Anniebach
The drama starts with ‘some names have been changed and some characters and scenes created for dramatic effect’
Yes, and that's why I would urge people to watch the factual Netflix documentary if they can. As I said upthread, I didn't watch more than a few minutes of The Reckoning before switching off but I am mindful of what Phil Harrison wrote in The Guardian about the Netflix series:
As the film emphasises, the burying of Meirion Jones and Liz MacKean’s initial Savile exposé is one of the most shameful episodes in the BBC’s history.
Lucy Mangan wrote in the The Guardian:
Journalist Meirion Jones eventually found victims willing to testify, despite their enduring vulnerability, but his Newsnight investigation into the by-then late Savile’s rape and abuse of countless children and adults was infamously pulled at the last minute, apparently to save the BBC embarrassment.
I don't know to what extent The Reckoning deals with the BBC failures. Again, Lucy Mangan writes:
A lot of emphasis is given to a couple of fairly inconsequential investigations into his conduct there. But a lot more emphasis is given to the failures of NHS staff to protect their patients at the various hospitals Savile was allowed unfettered access to, to editors caving in to pressures to shut down a Fleet Street exposé, and the many other failings by individuals and institutions (sometimes indistinguishable – such as when Thatcher, whom we see charmed by Savile at Chequers, gave him the knighthood he longed for) that turned a blind eye to the red flags he scattered with an increasingly lavish and contemptuous hand.
To what extent is the BBC attempting to deflect blame?
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