31 October 1926 – 29 October 2011
Jimmy became a music presenter in 1948 when he entertained dance hall audiences using an unlikely contraption that he created by amplifying a wind-up gramophone through the circuit of a valve radio. He progressed to establish himself as a larger-than-life personality on Radio Luxembourg in the 1960s with shows such as the Teen and Twenty Disc Club.
Although he was not part of the original BBC Radio 1 team, he was recruited nine months after the opening of the station to present the long-running Savile’s Travels.
After leaving Radio 1 in the late 1980s, he appeared on several commercial stations, as well as fronting an uninhibited discussion programme Speakeasy and the Sunday afternoon Double Top Ten.
Outside of radio, his extravagant clothing, jewellery and oversized cigar made him instantly recognisable through regular television appearances. He was the first presenter on Top Of The Pops, a regular fixture in many of the programmes and was there 42 years later to close the final show. His long-running Jim'll Fix It series looked at the dreams of ordinary people and then made their wishes come true, often in ways that were more dramatic than they had imagined.
Jim was a highly-motivated charity worker, giving his time as a volunteer hospital porter and raising more than £40 million for good causes. Much of this sum was collected as a result of running more than 200 marathons, a feat which he achieved despite having suffered a serious spinal injury in his youth.
A popular personality with one of the highest public profiles ever, he once said of himself “I've always been a bit odd.”
Jimmy became a music presenter in 1948 when he entertained dance hall audiences using an unlikely contraption that he created by amplifying a wind-up gramophone through the circuit of a valve radio. He progressed to establish himself as a larger-than-life personality on Radio Luxembourg in the 1960s with shows such as the Teen and Twenty Disc Club.
Although he was not part of the original BBC Radio 1 team, he was recruited nine months after the opening of the station to present the long-running Savile’s Travels.
After leaving Radio 1 in the late 1980s, he appeared on several commercial stations, as well as fronting an uninhibited discussion programme Speakeasy and the Sunday afternoon Double Top Ten.
Outside of radio, his extravagant clothing, jewellery and oversized cigar made him instantly recognisable through regular television appearances. He was the first presenter on Top Of The Pops, a regular fixture in many of the programmes and was there 42 years later to close the final show. His long-running Jim'll Fix It series looked at the dreams of ordinary people and then made their wishes come true, often in ways that were more dramatic than they had imagined.
Jim was a highly-motivated charity worker, giving his time as a volunteer hospital porter and raising more than £40 million for good causes. Much of this sum was collected as a result of running more than 200 marathons, a feat which he achieved despite having suffered a serious spinal injury in his youth.
A popular personality with one of the highest public profiles ever, he once said of himself “I've always been a bit odd.”
Audio
Christmas 2005
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