More than 15 years after he made his first documentary about Jimmy Saville, film-maker Louis Theroux is set to revisit the subject and explore how the disgraced former DJ and TV presenter was able to hide his horrific crimes of child abuse.

Theroux, now 45, filmed the documentary ‘When Louis Met Jimmy’ throughout 1999 and 2000. He struck up a friendship with Savile at the time, corresponding with him and occasionally staying at his house until roughly 2004. Since Savile’s evils were unmasked three years ago, Theroux has said that he feels a burden of responsibility for not being able to discover the truth despite getting so close to his subject.

Louis TherouxLouis Theroux will be making a second documentary about Jimmy Savile

While the original documentary did see Theroux directly ask a few questions about sexual abuse allegations, he was unable to glean any information. The BBC was criticised, both at the time and after Savile’s death, for not investigating their former employee in light of the issues raised by Theroux’s work.

Savile died in October 2011 at the age of 84, but his crimes were not uncovered until a year later by an ITV documentary. It is thought that he assaulted hundreds of vulnerable people between the age of five and 75 throughout his career, using his status as a celebrity and charitable fundraiser as a shield.

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In a statement on Tuesday (November 3rd) announcing the documentary, the network said that Theroux will attempt to “understand the personality of a man who was able to commit such a spectrum of sexual crimes; how someone he once called a friend used his celebrity status to commit these crimes; and how the power of this public image afforded him immunity”.

The statement added: “Louis will also explore the impact those crimes had on his victims, and the legacy of their revelations. How exactly did Jimmy Savile get away with it for all those years?”

Speaking on Richard Herring’s podcast earlier in 2015, Theroux expressed regret that his original documentary had failed to expose his crimes. “I feel a sense of responsibility,” he said. “I think none of us wants to believe that someone we know is a sex offender. I knew when I was making it there was his sexual side that I had not fully understood.”

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