Nobody can have missed the endless stream of Jimmy Savile stories over the last weeks. The Times Picture Desk called me this week about some pictures I took of Savile in 1990 and the memories came flooding back. I was sent to Stoke Mandeville to do "A day in the life" of Savile to back-pedal over a story we were pursuing regarding the Kegworth plane crash which I can't go into here. Anyway it was my "pleasure" to shoot Savile all over the hospital. Looking through the negatives I found in the loft this week I snapped him receiving giant cheques and holding court generally with consultants, nurses, patients, staff and families. He was a broadsheet snapper's nightmare as every time a camera was raised so would be his thumbs and cigar. I was called Dr. Smudge all day from the Fleet Street nick-name "Smudger". Actually, Dr Smudge is quite a good name for a band! Better than our own Zimmer Band.
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| ©copyright Michael Powell |
Eventually I got what I wanted when I heard of a patient who had broken his neck celebrating atop the Berlin Wall but keeping the Savile thumbs down was farcical. Shooting on a 200mm lens wide open down a long corridor I had to keep walking back to him to try "keep it natural", something completely alien to him. I had to actually physically pose him before getting the shot The Times used. Here it is.
