It seems an absurd question to ask doesn't it, the man who kicked off the first edition of Top of the Pops and spent the next 20 years presenting it from time to time, and being on the nation's top pop music station from the 60's to the 80's, plus a lengthy spell at first on Radio Luxembourg.
But just revisiting old editions of Top of the Pops and seeing him there, am I alone in now noticing that he actually seemed quite detached and disinterested from any of the music he was presenting to the nation on TV, quite unlike any of the others who did that show. The same can be said on radio from some of the archive online that can be found, his Old Record Club for instance.
He may have fooled us with his alleged criminality for years but did he also fool us about his music pedigree as well? Was he known to talk music with any true knowledge or passion to anybody he worked with in radio or TV, ever? Even Louis Theroux didn't seem to discover much on this when he spent so much time documenting him in 2000, but then he didn't discover the other stuff either.
Savile was one of Roy Plomley's last guests on Desert Island Discs in 1985, but being forced to pick eight pieces of music and talk about them on this programme doesn't mean much does it. The BBC now forbids us from hearing that one. His choices here -
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009mn2c - the Wham! track stands out like an amusing sore thumb for a near sixty year old amongst this lot of Elgar, Glenn Miller, Cole Porter, Ray Charles, Lee Dorsey Elvis and Beatles.