Rolf Harris: Primetime Predator review – A chilling look at a celebrity predator | television

I I mean this seriously. It’s time to start commissioning programs about good guys. We need consistent and regular vaccination against despair. If a deep dive into the lives of male celebrities past and present can yield enough impeccable records for a series, I’ll be surprised but pleased. If not, perhaps we could ask the public to nominate ‘ordinary’ men, like a version of the Pride of Britain awards. Channel 4, call me.

These are the thoughts that come to mind as the two-hour episode of Rolf Harris: Primetime Predator unfolds. For those of you still unaware – Harris was one of the kings of light entertainment in the 70s and 80s, an endearing Aussie presence who brought us hits like Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport and Jake the Peg with his extra leg (while wearing a prosthetic leg, to make sure only adults were allowed in on the double entendre), and then parlayed his talents as an entertainer and presenter into a long and lucrative TV career. He became loved again by a new generation in the 1990s, playing Glastonbury in 1993 after his wobbly version of Stairway to Heaven became a hit.

In 2013, he was arrested as part of Operation Yewtree, an investigation into sexual assaults in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal. Officers received evidence that Harris also had been abusing young women and girls for decades. The first known victim (“A”) was the friend of his 13-year-old daughter, Bindi. He pleaded not guilty to the multiple charges against him, although he still remembers jurors masturbating A under the blanket he, Bindi and the baby had placed on their laps while they watched TV on the sofa together. At the end of an eight-week trial, they found him guilty of all 12 counts of indecent assault against four female victims aged between eight and 19, between the 1960s and 1980s. He was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison and was released on license after three years. He died in 2023 at the age of 93.

This documentary is the usual – oh, we have something usual about this – combination of an etched career history, showing how the perpetrator gained power (women at the BBC were warned not to put themselves in vulnerable positions because of his “octopus” tendencies), and amassed protections that allowed him to hide in plain sight (like Savile, Harris was beloved by the royal family, and painted a portrait of the Queen’s 80th birthday in 2005). Then there’s the stunning archive footage: Harris appearing on Jim’ll Fix It and reassuring Savile that he could leave a baby girl on stage “safely in my capable hands”, and when she moved in the wrong direction, adding: “Stay here and enjoy it, girl.” He also led the public child safety campaign “Kids Can Say No!” In Australia in 1985. Then there are contributions from the officers who eventually built the case against him – and, of course, contributions from the victims. Some spoke during his trial, others spoke publicly for the first time here.

Again, as is all too familiar, there are memories of parents’ disbelief, police indifference if assaults are reported, and the consequent loss of opportunities to stop the predator before he can move on to many, many victims. There are hint lines that make you feel colder. “I wish I had learned how to push people away,” says Chris, recalling herself as an 11-year-old with Harris in Darwin. “I wish my mom was here,” says Tonya Lee, who was 15 when Harris assaulted her nearly 30 years ago, speaking in the present tense over time.

However, they are all unusually clear about the ramifications of what they and Harris went through — spanning decades. Perhaps Lee is not just speaking for Harris’ victims, but for everyone who has found themselves in the hands of a predator like him. “For a single moment of any pleasure, no matter how high [he] “He gets it from him that he destroys lives… nothing is the same,” she says with angry intensity.

Maybe one day things will be different. Until then, I’ll pick up this alternative documentary series, if I can find enough people who pass the test.