ITV's Exposure documentary that broke the seal on the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal, which picked up two RTS TV journalism awards last week, was made for just £170,000 by ITV Studios.
The Other Side of Jimmy Savile, broadcast on 3 October 2012 and featuring the harrowing accounts by five women of assaults by the late Jim'll Fix It presenter, was the result of a 10-month investigation between January and August last year.
When ITV's factual and current affairs creative director Alex Gardiner heard of the BBC's decision he moved into action, having worked closely before with Mark Williams-Thomas – the ex-police officer and child protection expert who worked on the Newsnight story in late 2011. (It is a small footnote in history, but one independent production company also turned down the chance to investigate Savile last year).
The budget was well within the average Exposure range of £150,000-200,000 per programme. Backed by ITV's news director Michael Jermey, they agreed they would only proceed to broadcast if the evidence for the eventual programme could be aired if Savile was still alive – the same test that then BBC news director Helen Boaden set the Newsnight team.
The investigation was a joint effort, as Williams-Thomas acknowledged when picking up the RTS awards, with ITV producer Lesley Gardiner. "I could not have done the story without her," he said.
The team working on the programme often worked weekends. "These were people who were passionate," observed Gardiner.
ITV was clearly nervous about the programme. One insurance was to use witnesses from a wide range of institutions, and only from victims who could substantiate their contact with Savile through a photograph and other evidence.
When complete, ITV took the precaution of placing the evidence before a QC, Ian Glen, who agreed it would constitute sufficient evidence for a police investigation. There was also a further twist: asking Esther Rantzen to respond to the evidence live on camera.
However, the programme was still only formally commissioned by ITV a few days before broadcast, and it was assigned a late slot at 11.15pm, instead of 10.35pm where Exposure documentaries usually run.
Nonetheless, The Other Side of Jimmy Savile attracted a 23% audience share and 2.5 million watched, when adding seven-day time-shifted viewing.
ITV naturally had no idea of the fallout that would then occur, including the toppling of a BBC director general, or the scale of Savile's abuse that would eventually be uncovered by the police investigation prompted by the documentary. As Williams-Thomas told the awards audience: "There was a rush, through the power of the media, to tell the stories."
The moral is that investigative journalism does not always have to break the bank, or end in tears. You need committed, resourceful journalists, bravery and great care.
It can transform the image of a newspaper or broadcaster, in this case signalling that ITV, once the home of World in Action, was back in business in current affairs, after a two decades of retreat. The investigation gave ITV News a head start on the story too (while the BBC was convulsed with internal strife), adding another news coverage gong at the RTS bash.
ITV knows only too well it could have been the original duo, Newnight's BBC team, Meirion Jones and Liz Mackean, picking up the RTS gongs, if executives at the BBC had backed them, or another suitable strand, say Panorama, had been encouraged to take up the Savile investigation. They didn't. And the outcome of that one bad decision is still reverberating.
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