Jimmy Savile: The Reckoning actor Steve Coogan praised but critics say drama adds little

Steve Coogan has been praised for his portrayal of Jimmy Savile, after the first episode of BBC drama The Reckoning was shown on TV on Monday.

The series depicts the life of the notorious presenter who was revealed to be a paedophile and sex offender.

Best known for playing Alan Partridge, Coogan's performance was described by the Guardian as "chillingly brilliant".

"But this is a horrific tale most of us already know - and the BBC's depressing drama adds little of value," it said.

The TV personality and DJ, who died in 2011 at the age of 84, used his celebrity status to prey on hundreds of people, male and female, many of them minors.

Rumours and allegations about his behaviour followed him for decades, but only after his death did his abuse become publicly known.

But overall, the show achieves nothing but leaving the viewer feeling "depressed" and "unenlightened", she added - especially given that several Savile documentaries already exist.

"Reminding us that evil exists and walks untroubled among us is not enough," she stressed, noting that testimony from real-life survivors appears as though "to justify the programme's existence and exonerate it from any claims of exploitation or voyeurism".

"A tour de force performance cannot mask the fact that the corporation has chosen to go easy on itself in this queasy drama."

It depicts Savile's career from the early 1960s and ends with his death. The BBC's Newsnight later dropped an investigation into him, and his crimes were finally revealed in an ITV documentary.

Meirion Jones, one of the journalists who exposed them, said the drama "handled victims with respect" and that Coogan was "excellent" as the menacing protagonist.

But he said it could have gone further about what the BBC knew at the time, noting how executives discussed his "darker side" and the "real truth" when deciding whether to prepare an obituary programme for Savile.

"In my view BBC bosses knew about all that from the 1970s right till his death," Jones wrote.

The BBC's chief content officer Charlotte Moore has said the drama's makers had "the editorial freedom to tell the story they wanted".

"I said, 'There are no boundaries to where you should go, you need to tell that story'," she recently told journalists.

He wrote: "Steve Coogan inhabits the lank silver-haired, cigar chomping, bejewelled Savile, in a show that never manages to rise above the cheap lure of voyeurism.

"How can you turn the story of Savile - a man who indiscriminately attacked children and adults for decades, while cosying up to the British establishment - into entertainment?"

But he praised Coogan, who "manages to portray Savile without humanising him, but also without making him a caricature either".

There was also praise for Coogan on social media. Actor Kate Robbins called his performance "astonishing", while director Hayden Hewitt said he is "terrifyingly accurate" as Savile.

Fellow Must Watch critic Hayley Campbell argued that the story had been told "sensitively and artfully".

She said: "At no point did I feel like I was watching Alan Partridge does Savile. That was always going to be a worry, but he's really good.

"It doesn't sensationalise it and it doesn't push anything to the point of making it just another TV crime thriller."

The Evening Standard's Martin Robinson also felt it had been done well, awarding four stars, saying the "harrowing story about Jimmy Savile demands to be seen".

He wrote: "This extraordinary horror story is still more relevant than many of us would like to believe."

Coogan himself has admitted to feeling "great trepidation" about the possible pitfalls of taking on the role.

"I felt like there's probably a handful of people in the country who could play the part, and I did consider myself one of them," the actor said.

"It wasn't enjoyable, it was a professional challenge that I wanted to take on... I knew there was the potential for catastrophic failure if you get it wrong, but that's not a reason not to do it."