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Prince Charles’ close friendship with disgraced BBC presenter Jimmy Savile is being examined in a new Netflix documentary that uncovered letters between the two.
Savile, who was exposed as a pedophile following his death in 2011 at age 84, is the subject of a new special “Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story.” Letters obtained by the filmmakers, which were written between 1986 and 2006, showed Queen Elizabeth II’s eldest son sought advice from the radio and TV personality, The Times U.K. reported Wednesday.
According to the outlet, the late BBC presenter wrote a media relations “handbook” for the heir to the British throne. Some advice suggested by Savile was later shown to the queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.
The first of the letters, dated Jan. 14, 1987, was a handwritten note from Charles, now 73. It stated, “Perhaps I am wrong, but you are the bloke who knows what’s going on. What I really need is a list of suggestions from you. I so want to get to parts of the country that others don’t get to reach.”
According to letters obtained by the filmmakers, Prince Charles and Jimmy Savile wrote to each other between 1986 and 2006.
(Gareth Copley – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)
In one correspondence, Charles sought guidance on how to deal with Prince Andrew’s insensitive comments about the 1988 Lockerbie disaster, a terrorist plane bombing that killed everyone aboard and 11 people on the ground.
When Charles’ younger brother visited a Scottish town just days after the tragedy, the Duke of York said, “I supposed statistically something like this has got to happen at some stage … Of course, it only affects the community in a very small way.”
Rowan Deacon, the documentary’s director, told the outlet that “it reignited a discussion about how the royal family should respond to disasters.”
“Jimmy Savile wrote this dossier, quite an in-depth document of advice, on how the queen should behave and how members of the royal family should not be in competition with each other,” Deacon explained.
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Diana, Princess of Wales, Charles, Prince of Wales, and English DJ, television and radio broadcaster Jimmy Savile at the opening of the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, U.K., Aug. 4, 1983.
(Hilaria McCarthy/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Deacon noted that Savile’s guidelines included hiring “a special person with considerable experience in such matters” and having “an incident room” with “several independent phone lines, teletext, etc.”
The exchange implied that Charles took Savile’s advice seriously.
In a 1989 letter, he wrote to Savile, “I attach a copy of my memo on disasters which incorporates your points and which I showed to my father. He showed it to HM [Her Majesty].”
In 1989, Charles also asked for suggestions on “useful morale-boosting visits, etc. to worthwhile groups, places, projects and so on that don’t get enough attention.”
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In another letter, dated December 1989, Charles asked Savile to meet with Sarah Ferguson, Andrew’s wife at the time.
“I wonder if you would ever be prepared to meet my sister-in-law – the Duchess of York?” asked Charles. “Can’t help feeling that it would be extremely useful to her if you could. I feel she could do with some of your straightforward common sense!”
Bestowed with a knighthood for his charity fundraising, Savile was best known as the host of the BBC’s “Top Of The Pops” weekly television pop music show, launching the program in 1964 and returning to present its final edition in 2006. For almost 20 years from 1975, Savile also hosted the hugely popular series “Jim’ll Fix It,” in which the broadcaster responded to children’s letters by arranging for their wishes to be realized.
In his lifetime, Savile championed several causes. He frequently participated in marathons to raise money and led work to collect 20 million pounds ($32 million) for the creation of a national spinal injuries center at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in southern England.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher meeting Jimmy Savile. The TV host presented her with a check to be handed over to the NSPCC. It was part of the money he raised for charity.
(PA Images via Getty Images)
Savile never married and fiercely guarded his personal life, which sparked curiosity. He lived alone in his native Leeds, in northern England, reserving part of his home as a shrine to his late mother. The documentary noted that since Savile’s death, independent investigations and those made by Scotland Yard uncovered that he had been “a prolific and predatory sex offender, abusing hundreds of people, some as young as five.”
More than 450 allegations of sexual assault and abuse have been made against Savile. The allegations followed Savile long before his death. In 2013, British police released a transcript of an interview with Savile in which he vehemently denied allegations of sexual abuse and said his accusers were only after money.
Savile told officers he had “no need to chase girls” or “take liberties with them,” because as a host of popular TV shows, “what you don’t do is assault women, they assault you.”
According to The Times, an anonymous letter was sent to police in 1998 that said Savile “thinks he’s untouchable because of the people he mixes with.” That included Savile’s relationship with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who lobbied for him to be knighted in 1990.
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Prince Charles is heir to the British throne.
(Getty)
“The consequence of that was that it gave him a seal of approval in the eyes of the British public,” said Deacon. “It consolidated our trust in him. We’re not suggesting for one moment that Thatcher or Prince Charles knew what he was really up to. Nonetheless, that seal of approval meant that the weight of his respect and trust was a planet compared to the tiny voices of the women that popped up every now and then.”
Deacon stressed there is no indication that Charles knew anything about Savile’s alleged crimes, which became public knowledge after his death.
A spokesperson for the prince didn’t immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
“He was duped like we all were,” said Deacon. “The letters show the trust that Prince Charles put into Jimmy Savile. He was trying to appeal to the British people, trying to modernize. And he saw Jimmy Savile as his conduit to that. In hindsight, that was catastrophic.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
