Jimmy Savile’s headstone, dismantled this week out of respect for public opinion, reads with a grim irony in light of recent allegations: "It was good while it lasted." When Savile-as-sex offender hit the headlines this week, the nation responded with shock, but it was a shock all the more affecting for the general feeling that, perhaps, we simply knew it all along. The BBC and NHS have already come under fire for their collusion in these crimes, and as cases against Savile increase by the day, the web of blind eyes and backs turned grows ever wider. For those of a certain generation however, the case throws up more than a little personal guilt: were we, the public, all guilty of letting ‘Jim’ get away with it?

For the younger generation, of course - some of us perhaps only just exposed to the sheer extent of Jimmy Savile’s former popularity - it all seems a little ‘quel surprise.’ In hindsight, and without the context of a 1970s lens, Jimmy Savile always was the hyperbolical creep: cartoonish features, jingoistic shell suits and maniacal eyes. One clip shows him wrapping up his television show Clunk Click, settling himself down between two uncomfortable looking teenagers whilst bidding the cameras an impish farewell. His guest star for the night is pop star Gary Glitter; Glitter would later spend two years in a Viatnamese prison for paedophilia. As testimonies emerge of Savile taking young girls for rides in his Rolls Royce in order to sexually abuse them, even the name of this hugely popular show takes on a newly gross resonance: Clunk Click being the slogan for his series of public information broadcasts on the importance of wearing your seatbelt. In this vein, even Savile’s charity work now smacks of the pantomime villain. For what villain is more terrifying than the one who convinces everyone he is a saint - one of the good guys? 

The majority of accusations levelled at Savile occurred in his celebrity heyday in the late 60s and 70s, when the presenter collected OBEs, ran marathons and fronted a string of prime time television series. As events come to light just over a year after Savile’s death, the focus of media coverage of the crimes has also, quite naturally, zoned in on this earlier era.

However, this retrospective impulse is a dangerous, sepia-toned frame in which to handle a case that has such wide-reaching implications, however. The Met’s investigation into the hundreds of lines of enquiry on Savile is essential, but for more than just the unveiling of the villain of the tale. We must beware the past tense, and instead use investigations into the current as well as former modes of conduct at our largest institutions as a means to help stop the child abuse occurring every day in Britain.

The denial-at-large exists firmly in the present tense, as childrens’ charities up and down the country have emphasised this week. High-profile cases aside, the sexual exploitation of children remains a fixture at all levels of British society: according to charity Stop It Now, the latest research reports that 1 in 6 children are sexually abused before they reach the age of 16, and more often than not by someone they know.

If Savile presents the perfect pantomime villain, we need to beware falling into the traditional theatrical traps. Cries of ‘Told You So’ will be as useful now as a customary ‘He’s behind you!’ The maxim adopted must be for wider resolution, and to call Savile a ‘one-off’ only echoes the celebrity tributes that poured in upon his death. He was - and is not - a unique figure, and to continue emphasising his oddness will only serve to damage a chance for real and necessary progress in child protection laws.