User Reviews

I binge watched The Reckoning last night. It makes for difficult viewing but absolutely needed to be made. It gave invaluable insight into the workings of a depraved predator and how he operated in plain site. He was an opportunist in the worst possibly sense. For his career, for himself and worst, for his base impulses.

It's raw and graphic but these stories needed telling. Yes, it was sickening and shocking, but imagine being one of his victims.

These horrors needed highlighting if only to illustrate how easily they were ignored and disregarded by the people around who couldn't see, or didn't want to see. The worst kind of sexual crimes casually written of as "just Jimmy being Jimmy."

At one point Savile described himself as a Pied Piper. Artistic license or not, he absolutely was, but not to children who often saw right through him.

No, he attracted establishment rats who danced along to his depraved tune. The tory government at the time giving the keys, literally, to the biggest mental asylum in the UK to its biggest nutter.

Britain loves an eccentric, something Jimmy knew all to well. His whole persona carefully choreographed, from the shock of bleached hair to his outrageous outfits, jarring inflection, and, of course, his prop bling and token cigar.

Coogan nails this role and I'm not just speaking as the blatent fanboy I am. This isn't a caricature, this IS Jimmy, and that performance must have taken its toll. Talk about suffering for your art.

The writing interspersed with real victim testimonials was inspired. The set design, lighting, make-up, music and mood, all faultless.

A strong cast made it utterly believable with stand out performances too numerous to mention. Although I was blown away by the actress playing Thatcher.

Coogan has cemented himself as a natonal treasure and this is compulsory viewing.