This first episode explains and details Jimmy's popularity, an enormous celebrity, clearly trusted, and incredibly visible across TV and radio.
I was perhaps surprised by the lighter tone of this first part, but it's perhaps trying to give a balanced overview. Some incredible footage and interviews, the man truly was in some incredibly powerful and influential circles. Royalty, prime ministers, teachers, hospitals, and the working classes, he had the unnerving ability to mix with anyone.
I wasn't going to watch it, as he does, and did give me the creeps, even as a kid, there was just something about him. I wanted to know more ahead of the forthcoming Steve Coogan dramatisation.
There are one or two moments where the act slips, and you hear alarming words from him, it boggles the mind that nobody questioned it, and that he was allowed to do what he did. A few scenes where I squirmed, some of the footage is incredibly unnerving, the vulnerability of some of those you see him interacting with.
It's well produced, it's fascinating, it's uncomfortable at times. 8/10.