Junior school calls off play featuring character based on prolific paedophile Jimmy Savile

A junior school urgently recalled scripts for its end-of-year play after discovering a key character was based on serial sex attacker Jimmy Savile. Parents have said the “disgusting” blunder only emerged after pupils at Scargill School in Rainham, east London, took the scripts home to read through for auditions. The musical Lights, Camera, Action! features a school caretaker called Jim Fixit who solves children’s problems and is ”ready for any challenge.”

The character reads out letters from children, such as “Dear Jim, could you please find time to retrieve my sixteen footballs from the roof of the school hall.” A song praising his ability to “fix any problem” includes the lyrics: “He’s a real superhero, bet he’d look really good in tights.” One horrified mother said: “My son came home from school with the script and said ‘Mummy, should I be singing about Jimmy Savile? I said ‘what?’. I think it is completely disgusting - I do not want him to be a part of it.



“The school bought the script from a production company which adapts plays for primary schools but not one of his teachers picked up on it.” The school responded by sending out an immediate text message to all parents saying: “URGENT MESSAGE. We would like to RECALL all of the year 6 play scripts as soon as possible.” Teachers have now decided to stage another play once the original scripts have been destroyed, according to head teacher Amanda Ireland. Mrs Ireland said: “Lights Camera Action is a really good play in terms of what the year six pupils enjoy doing.

“However, because it is an older play the matter of one of the characters, in light of what has happened recently, is inappropriate. The whole idea was children would go to the character and he would fix their problems. We have not had time yet to decide on a new play because it all blew up. We are trying to make it right as quickly as we can.” The play was last performed four years ago before before investigations into Jimmy Savile began. Savile, who presented BBC’s Jim’ll Fix It for almost 20 years, died in October 2011, prompting hundreds of people to come forward stating they were abused by the celebrity at the height of his fame. Earlier this month a report by the NSPCC said Savile abused at least 500 victims, including some as young as two.