The new BBC drama The Reckoning starring Steve Coogan as the controversial television personality and DJ airs tonight.
The new show tells the story from DJ-ing in music halls in the North of England in the 1960s to hosting Top of the Pops and Jim’ll Fix It. It looks at why he never had to face consequences for his actions.
At the helm, taking on the the hard role of playing such a dark character is Steve Coogan, known for his iconic character Alan Partridge and The Trip alongside various Hollywood movies and TV shows.
Coogan felt “great trepidation” about taking on such a role, the BBC reports. He said: “I felt like there’s probably a handful of people in the country who could play the part, and I did consider myself one of them.”
“It wasn’t enjoyable, it was a professional challenge that I wanted to take on… I knew there was the potential for catastrophic failure if you get it wrong, but that’s not a reason not to do it.
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He continued saying the producers were set to live no stone unturned saying they “have to answer the question everyone has… And I felt comfortable that it was being made for the right reasons.”
To understand how such abuse can happen, Coogan says: “You have to show the things that perhaps initially seem counterintuitive. He was charismatic, undoubtedly, because that was part of the Trojan horse that he created, to go about his sexual assaults.
“He created, over 30 years, quite an elaborate machine… which served him very well. And the court jester character that he created was his armour. It was very difficult, even for very reputable journalists, to pierce that armour.”
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