Steve Coogan reveals why he chose to take the role of infamous paedophile Jimmy Savile in new BBC drama

A new BBC drama called The Reckoning, shows actor Steve Coogan portraying Jimmy Savile, a notorious paedophile and sex offender.

Savile, who died aged 84 was a popular TV presenter and DJ renowned for his dramatic dress sense and charity fundraising, until his death in 2011 when horrific claims of sexual abuse against Savile throughout his career.

The BBC drama follows the career of Jimmy Savile from his 1960s DJ-ing to Top of the Pops and Jim'll Fix It, shedding some light on why Savile never had to pay for his crimes.

Actor Steve Coogan, 57, best known for his comedic character role of Alan Partridge admitted he felt "great trepidation" about taking on this controversial role.

"It wasn't enjoyable, it was a professional challenge that I wanted to take on... I knew there was a potential for catastrophic failure if you get it wrong, but that's not a reason to not do it."

Due to Savile's influence and connections to powerful people such as prime ministers and the royal family, he was a very difficult man to hold accountable as many of his assaults took place whilst he was working with children.

Several of Savile's victims attempted to bring his horrific crimes to light but were silenced due to his evasiveness when questioned on certain matters.

Coogan spoke about how he and the producers were aware the script would "have to answer the question everyone has" which was the main reason for this drama's production and that Coogan felt it was being made "for the right reasons".

He also described having to get "under the skin" of Savile but admitted this was a good thing as getting to know everything about him could prevent anything like this from happening ever again: " 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."

Coogan has done comedic impersonations of Savile before but admitted his performance in The Reckoning had to be much more sinsiter: "to render him a pantomime villain, would be a disservice to the survivors and victims."