Joel Harley
Published November 22, 2025 3:06pm
Updated November 22, 2025 3:07pm
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An investigation into allegations of sexual abuse was launched after Jimmy Savile’s death in 2012 (Picture: Shutterstock)
Key Points
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- The cast of the BBC’s ’80s adaptation of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe were ‘warned’ about Jimmy Savile during filming
- A BBC floor manager allegedly warned child stars to avoid Savile due to concerns about his inappropriate behaviour
- The BBC has since taken measures following a 2016 review into its culture and practices regarding safeguarding
The star of an iconic ’80s BBC series has claimed that she and the cast were ‘warned’ about Jimmy Savile as child actors.
Sophie Wilcox, Sophie Cook, Richard Dempsey and Jonathan R Scott all starred in the broadcaster’s 1988 adaptation of the novel The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
Over the course of three seasons, the show adapted four books in C.S Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series, culminating with The Silver Chair in 1990.
Nearly four decades later, the original cast has reunited for the BBC documentary Return To Narnia.
This includes actress Sophie Cook, who played Susan Pevensie in the show.
In reflecting on her time as a child star, Cook has revealed how she and other members of the cast were ‘warned’ about ‘kiddie fiddler’ Jimmy Savile.
Sophie Cook (far right) played Susan Penvesie in the 1988 version of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (Picture: BBC)
Cook claims that she and the cast were ‘warned’ about Jimmy Savile (Picture: Shutterstock)
Speaking to The Times, Cook began: ‘I don’t know if anyone’s told you the story of Jimmy Savile being in the next studio when we were filming in TV Centre?
‘And one of the floor managers came up to us and said, “Don’t go near him, he’s a kiddie fiddler.”‘
She continued: ‘It was just known… [I’m] not picking holes in the BBC. I think that [it] was just… culturally accepted. This level of knowledge of stuff going on, you know, of a darkness, only just a studio away.’
A new documentary will revisit the BBC’s Narnia adaptation (Picture: BBC)
A spokesperson for the BBC told Metro.co.uk: ‘Following the revelations about Savile, the BBC commissioned former Court of Appeal judge Dame Janet Smith DBE to conduct a thorough, independent review of the culture and practices of the BBC during the years he worked here, which was published in 2016.
‘We accepted the conclusions and recommendations in full and since then have implemented a number of changes to help prevent anything like this happening again.’
Although allegations of Savile’s crimes first surfaced in the 1980s, a police investigation into claims of abuse was not launched until after his death in 2012.
Savile was never brought to justice during his lifetime (Picture: SWNS)
In 2013, a joint report by the Metropolitan Police and the NSPCC recorded hundreds of allegations against Savile, at locations which included hospitals and a hospice.
Since then, 450 alleged victims came forward to police under Operation Yewtree.
Of these reports, 214 criminal offences were recorded, spanning from 1955 to 2009. 34 included allegations of rape or penetration.
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Previous Page Next PageSavile’s victims include children as young as eight, a pregnant woman in her 20s, and a paralysed woman in a wheelchair.
The children’s TV presenter was subject to a 2022 Netflix documentary which utilised archive footage of the star among the high profile connections and famous faces he surrounded himself with.
This includes Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who lobbied for him to be knighted in 1990 – in spite of warnings from senior civil servants that Savile was a ‘strange and complex man’.
‘I’m not in your world, I’m not constrained pretty well by anything,’ he later boasts in an archive interview.
Steve Coogan starred as Savile in the 2023 drama The Reckoning (Picture: BBC)
A year later, actor and comedian Steve Coogan starred as Savile in a controversial BBC drama which delved into his life and crimes.
‘It is controversial and I understand that,’ Coogan told Radio Times at the time.
‘The BBC are damned if they do and damned if they don’t, and I believe the correct choice is to be damned if they do. Broadly, it’s better to talk about something than not.’
Coogan went to surprising lengths in portraying Savile (Picture: BBC)
Earlier this year, the actor reflected on his performance in the show, revealing to Louis Theroux how he quite literally stepped into the monster’s shoes to play Jimmy Savile.
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‘This is something I’ve not said before,’ he told Theroux on his podcast. ‘I wore his shoes, his actual shoes. So I was walking, literally, in his actual shoes.’
This, in turn, took its toll, with Coogan revealing: ‘I remember one morning going to my trailer and feeling like I wanted to burst into tears,’ he said.
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‘It was like I had this huge cloak on me. Very sad. Towards the end, I just wanted it to finish.’
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