‘There’s terrible darkness in my son’: Jimmy Savile’s mother’s confession to priest shown in BBC’s The Reckoning

Jimmy Savile’s mother said she feared her son had “terrible darkness” in him as she made a confession to a priest.

The moment was re-enacted in the new BBC drama The Reckoning, which looks at what happened in the years before Savile, played by Steve Coogan, was found to be a prolific sex offender.

Savile’s mother Agnes, played by Gemma Jones, visits a priest to express concerns about her youngest son.

She says: “It’s my fault he is like he is, always looking for attention, showing off. I worry there’s some terrible darkness in him.”

The priest asks: “Has he committed mortal sins?”

She replies: “I don’t know, but I worry that he has.”