This BBC drama handles a difficult and extremely unpleasant story in a sensitive way that neither dwells upon nor sensationalises Savile's crimes.
Coogan gives an excellent performance, but it was perhaps inevitable that The Reckoning could not really add anything that was both new and factual (see below) given the enormous publicity surrounding the sexual abuse scandal that began less than a year after Savile's death.
The final episode is the weakest of the four as it feels like a contrived attempt to reassure the audience that Savile ultimately suffered in some small way for his crimes through an increasing fear that the walls were closing in on him and that he may be exposed at any moment.
The problem is that this is almost entirely fictional.
The credits state that one of the key sources was Dan Davies' book In Plain Sight: The Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile and we see Davies questioning Savile (in a far more confrontational and persistent way than is described in his book) to the point where Savile eventually agrees to tell Davies everything at their next meeting.
Davies calls Savile to arrange the meeting but there's no answer.
Savile has died and his lifeless body is shown slumped in an armchair next to the phone as Davies leaves a voice message.
Firstly, Savile died in bed in his sleep but, far more importantly, Davies last met Savile nearly two years before his death and this fact completely contradicts what the viewer has been told and ultimately undermines what the programme was hoping to achieve.
In any case, Davies acknowledges in his book that Savile was never going to reveal the secrets that he had guarded so closely for decades so why rewrite history?
The real truth is there was no reckoning.
Savile was never punished for his crimes.
He got away with it.
It's as simple as that.
Coogan gives an excellent performance, but it was perhaps inevitable that The Reckoning could not really add anything that was both new and factual (see below) given the enormous publicity surrounding the sexual abuse scandal that began less than a year after Savile's death.
The final episode is the weakest of the four as it feels like a contrived attempt to reassure the audience that Savile ultimately suffered in some small way for his crimes through an increasing fear that the walls were closing in on him and that he may be exposed at any moment.
The problem is that this is almost entirely fictional.
The credits state that one of the key sources was Dan Davies' book In Plain Sight: The Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile and we see Davies questioning Savile (in a far more confrontational and persistent way than is described in his book) to the point where Savile eventually agrees to tell Davies everything at their next meeting.
Davies calls Savile to arrange the meeting but there's no answer.
Savile has died and his lifeless body is shown slumped in an armchair next to the phone as Davies leaves a voice message.
Firstly, Savile died in bed in his sleep but, far more importantly, Davies last met Savile nearly two years before his death and this fact completely contradicts what the viewer has been told and ultimately undermines what the programme was hoping to achieve.
In any case, Davies acknowledges in his book that Savile was never going to reveal the secrets that he had guarded so closely for decades so why rewrite history?
The real truth is there was no reckoning.
Savile was never punished for his crimes.
He got away with it.
It's as simple as that.