The DISGUSTING Case of The BBC

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Dame Janet Smith review, Operation Utree, Ralph Harris
2. 3:00 – 6:00: Ralph Harris, Stuart Hall
3. 6:00 – 9:00: Chris Denning, Jonathan King
4. 9:00 – 12:00: Jonathan King, Chris Denning, Gary Glitter
5. 12:00 – 15:00: Prospero and Ariel

Notable quotes from "The DISGUSTING Case of The BBC"

• Involving famous men who had worked for or passed through the BBC. The Metropolitan Police commenced Operation Utree, which was an investigation launched in October of 2012. It…

  about Operation Utree · at 1:58

• BBC fostered an environment for him to do whatever he wanted. And he wasn't the only one. Ralph Harris began his career at the BBC with a regular 10-minute drawing and…

  about Ralph Harris · at 2:51

• Nobody in the BBC knew about his appalling crimes. But we're just getting started. There's more. Stuart Hall was a BBC regional news presenter in northwest England and became…

  about Stuart Hall · at 5:07

• Chris Denning was one of the original DJs hired for BBC Radio 1 when it launched in 1967, but his offending started years earlier. In 1959, when he was just 18, and long before he was.

  about Chris Denning · at 6:23

• Jonathan King was a media figure who was intertwined with the BBC. He appeared as a guest presenter on BBC shows such as Top of the Pops and fronted the BBC series called Entertainment USA in the.

  about Jonathan King · at 8:44

• Leaving the allegations legally unresolved. And now we arrive to Paul Gad. Known by his stage name Gary Glitter. He was a major glam rock star in the 70s. At his peak he…

  about Gary Glitter · at 10:43

• Now maybe that's true, but then what's this all about? This is a statue called Prospero and Ariel carved by Eric Gil, one of Britain's most celebrated stonemasons of the…

  about Prospero and Ariel · at 14:27

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Ralph Harris — Person · 4 mentions · first at 2:57
• Jonathan King — Person · 4 mentions · first at 8:44
• Chris Denning — Person · 3 mentions · first at 6:23
• Eric Gill — Person · 2 mentions
• Stuart Hall — Person · 1 mention · first at 5:13
• Gary Glitter — Person · 1 mention · first at 10:48

Concepts & topics

• Operation Utree — Concept · 1 mention · first at 2:04
• Dame Janet Smith review — Concept · 1 mention · first at 2:26
  Schools, and on the BBC's premises. For the BBC, the most damaging finding came from the Dame Janet Smith review. It found that Savile was able to essay his victims in…
• Prospero and Ariel — Concept · 1 mention · first at 14:32

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 Please subscribe to me. I would be extremely happy. This case takes place in the UK and spans over decades. The British Broadcasting Corporation, otherwise known as the BBC, is an organization that was established on the 18th of October 1922. From its outset, the BBC claimed to want to inform, educate, and entertain. The corporation expanded rapidly through the 1930s. It established broadcasting house in London as its headquarters and launched television services from 1936 onwards. It became ingrained into British culture especially after broadcasting the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II which drew millions of viewers to their screens. Domestically, the BBC gained a reputation and was known as anti-be.

0:54 Many households viewed it as a benchmark of impartial journalism, quality programming, and to a degree, national memory. It began hosting all manner of TV shows, many of them loved by children. In the modern era, the BBC's image as a pillar of British life began to fracture. They became embroiled in all manner of controversies and scandals, and it's the most disturbing scandal that we will be delving into in today's video. For decades, a man called Jimmy Savile had been regarded as one of Britain's most recognizable entertainers. He was a charity fundraiser, a television fixture, and a trusted household name. But after his death in 2011, long suppressed rumors began to surface, rapidly escalating into a wave of allegations that shattered the carefully maintained public image around him. This man was able to essay hundreds of victims. When the several revelations finally broke in 2012, they did not emerge as an isolated

1:54 case. They opened up an entire landscape of historical abuse allegations involving famous men who had worked for or passed through the BBC. The Metropolitan Police commenced Operation Utree, which was an investigation launched in October of 2012. It treated Savile as the central figure, but quickly moved on to other celebrities. But for Savile, it found that he had committed offenses in hospitals, schools, and on the BBC's premises. For the BBC, the most damaging finding came from the Dame Janet Smith review. It found that Savile was able to essay his victims in virtually every single one of the BBC's premises at which he worked at. They found that some of the staff were even aware of these incidents and that rumors had been circulating. But the BBC just turned a blind eye. Many of Seville's victims were vulnerable people and children. And some claim that the BBC fostered an environment for him to

2:54 do whatever he wanted. And he wasn't the only one. Ralph Harris began his career at the BBC with a regular 10-minute drawing and entertainment segment on the children's television program Jigsaw in 1953. He went on to host Ralph Harris Cartoon Time, the Ralph Harris Show, and many more. His usual shows were children's shows. He was seen as a familyfriendly performer. He even rose to a level of fame that granted him access to the British royal family, just like Jimmy Savile did. In 2005, Ralph Harris even painted the royal portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. However, in 2014, his past caught up with him. Just like Savile, he too was a serial abuser.

3:41 Ralph Harris was arrested under Operation Utri, and he was convicted of 12 counts of indecent assault against four girls with offendings spanning the 60s and the 80s. The victims included a close friend of his daughter and other young girls he met through work and public appearances. Their ages were between 7 and 19, with him having a relationship with a 19-year-old way before she was an adult. During his trial, the judge and prosecutors described how Ralph Harris used his celebrity and public image to gain access, groom, and abuse. Some offending took place in private homes, others at events and studios. Ralph Harris had even visited sites known for illegal images. He would also visit schools across the country, and he even visited many of my friends at a school near where I lived. Ralph's convictions weren't the limit of his abuse. From what we know, several witnesses from New Zealand, Malta, and Australia came

4:41 forward at his trial to testify, but they weren't the subject of the trial, nor were cases made for them in the UK. Media coverage and subsequent commentaries emphasized that Ralph Harris had been allowed to occupy positions of trust and authority, including work on material aimed at children, despite rumors that some people later claimed had circulated informally. So allegedly, many people did know. It's difficult to see how nobody in the BBC knew about his appalling crimes. But we're just getting started. There's more. Stuart Hall was a BBC regional news presenter in northwest England and became nationally known as the host of a game show called It's a Knockout. In 2013, he admitted to 14 counts of indecent assault against 13 girls aged between 9 and 17. He committed these crimes between the 60s and 80s. The court described him as an opportunistic predator who assaulted girls who saw him as a trusted TV

5:41 personality. One victim described being essayed in the hotel staff quarters after being chosen as a cheerleader on his program. Later reports indicated that some of the abuse occurred at or in connection with BBC premises, including studios where he had worked at. When his crimes became public, the BBC terminated his contracts and commissioned its own review of his behavior and what staff knew. Further reports found that he had essayed at least 21 female victims at the BBC between 1967 and 1991 and that some BBC staff knew that he was bringing underage girls into his dressing room.

6:23 Chris Denning was one of the original DJs hired for BBC Radio 1 when it launched in 1967, but his offending started years earlier. In 1959, when he was just 18, and long before he was anyone in broadcasting, he was convicted in West Germany for distributing illegal images of minors. In the mid-60s, he joined the BBC and became the first voice on BBC 2 in 1964 and a radio one DJ in 1967. Using his fame, he got close to boys around music shows, backstage areas, and on Top of the Pops. Top of the Pops was a TV show that Savile hosted. By 1974, he had his first UK conviction for gross indecency and indecent assault on boys. Although he wasn't jailed for these crimes, but he was sacked from the BBC and a record label that was owned by another man starring in this case. Throughout the 1970s, he posed as a friendly DJ and talent scout while using the unsupervised setting and promises of opportunity to groom boys. In 1985, he

7:31 was convicted of gross indecency with a young boy and jailed for 18 months. Shortly after his release in 1988, he received a three-year sentence for the exact same crime again. In 1996, he was jailed again, this time for 10 weeks for distributing indecent material. After being released this time, he left for Prague, trying to detach from his past crimes. In Prague, he recruited impoverished boys from arcades, bars, and pools. From the year 2000 to 2008, he went all around Europe committing the same kinds of crimes. He would be arrested charged imprisoned released and then just reaffend. In 2013, he was arrested under Operation Utri. He pleaded guilty in 2014 to 40 offenses against 26 boys aged between 9 and 16, spanning from the 60s to the 80s, which included a stint at the BBC. He was subsequently jailed for 13 years. In 2016, Chris Denning admitted to 21 more offenses against 11 boys aged 8 to 16.

8:40 He died behind bars in 2022, aged 81. Jonathan King was a media figure who was intertwined with the BBC. He appeared as a guest presenter on BBC shows such as Top of the Pops and fronted the BBC series called Entertainment USA in the 1980s. He was a producer on the song Hooked on a Feeling. He was the individual responsible for adding the uger in the intro, which can be heard on movies like Reservoir Dogs and Guardians of the Galaxy. He founded UK Records, a famous label that had signed Chris Denning for a time. In the year 2000, Jonathan King was investigated after a man reported that 30 years earlier, he had been essayed by Jonathan and other people. Jonathan was then arrested.

9:27 Shortly after he paid his bail of £150,000, £50,000 of which was paid by Simon Cowell. He was arrested again in January of 2001 over further allegations. In total, 27 men told the police that Jonathan had essayed them between 1969 and 1989, and officers found photographs of teenagers at his home. In September of 2001, after a two-week trial, Jonathan was convicted on four counts of indecent assault. He was sentenced to seven years in prison. He was released on parole in March of 2005. After his release, Jonathan repeatedly challenged how the media had portrayed him. He also produced a low-budget movie called Vile Pervet the musical, which he played all 21 parts and promoted his own account of the essay cases. In 2015, he was arrested again. He was charged with 18 offenses against nine boys aged 14 to 16, alleged to have been committed between 1970 and 1986. His trial began on the 11th of June 2018. 2 weeks later,

10:34 he was found not guilty on some charges, and the jury was discharged on the arrest, meaning they couldn't determine a verdict. The case collapsed purely because of major police failures, leaving the allegations legally unresolved. And now we arrive to Paul Gad. Known by his stage name Gary Glitter. He was a major glam rock star in the 70s. At his peak he taughred internationally and appeared on Top of the Pops. However, in November of 1997, Paul Gad was arrested after a computer technician discovered horrific images on his laptop. Police searches at his London home revealed even more. On the 12th of November 1999, Paul admitted to downloading more than 4,000 images of CP. The judge sentenced him to only 4 months in prison. And after he was released in January of 2000, he left the UK and began living under a false name in Spain before moving to Cuba, Cambodia, and then later Vietnam.

11:32 Vietnamese authorities became concerned after he was banned from a nightclub for allegedly groping a teenage waitress. and witnesses reported seeing young girls enter his home. On the 20th of November 2005, he was arrested at a Vietnamese airport while trying to flee to Bangkok. Six girls and young women aged 11 to 23 made allegations against him. In March of 2006, he was found guilty and sentenced to 3 years imprisonment. In a Vietnamese prison, his health declined and in 2008, he was sent back to the UK. But one of the darkest parts of his abuse had not yet seen the light. In October of 2012, a documentary called The Other Side of Jimmy Savile included an allegation that Paul Gad had forced himself upon a girl in Jimmy's BBC dressing room. From this, the police arrested him under Operation Utri. On the 5th of June 2014, he was charged with eight historical acts of essay involving girls from 12 to 14. The

12:36 judge sentenced him to 16 years imprisonment on the 27th of February, 2015. Now, you would think that a man so dangerous would remain behind bars for the full 16 years, but this is the UK. He was released in 2023 after only serving half of his sentence. However, the creep was later recalled to prison for breaching license conditions after allegedly inquiring about accessing the dark web on a smartphone. Taken together, these cases revealed several reoccurring themes. Firstly, the offenders used their fame to gain access to vulnerable or young people. Fame created opportunities such as the ability to invite people backstage, access to studios, and encounters framed as special treats for fans or competition winners. In several cases, victims later described how the prestige of meeting a television or radio personality shaped their decision and their reluctance to complain. They were worried that either people wouldn't

13:35 believe them or that they would be shamed themselves. Secondly, the BBC during the 60s and 90s were shown to have been poorly equipped to deal with matters like essay, especially when these complaints involved star presenters. With all of this, the BBC began internal investigation and issued formal apologies every time a previous or current BBC employee had been convicted of a crime as heinous as these. Just recently, in September of 2024, a former BBC lead anchor, Hugh Edwards, pleaded guilty to receiving 41 CP images.

14:13 And perhaps some people are thinking this is just one huge coincidence. Maybe it's just a few bad apples have got involved in this organization and have just used their power in this organization to find victims. Now maybe that's true, but then what's this all about? This is a statue called Prospero and Ariel carved by Eric Gil, one of Britain's most celebrated stonemasons of the wartime period. Gil chose characters from Shakespeare's The Tempest. Prospero the wise is a commanding figure and was meant to represent the control and creative power of the broadcaster. Ariel is the spirit of air representing the invisible magic of radio waves carrying messages and stories to the nation. At the time the symbolism kind of made sense. For decades it had just been another part of the building's architecture. vote. Soon enough, the truth about Eric Gil's personal private life became public and the statue took on a meaning that the

15:13 BBC was not prepared for. Eric Gil's private diaries were published. They revealed a hidden life that destroyed his reputation overnight. Behind the public acclaim was a man who committed incest. A man who had essayed his own daughter and his own dog. The details of his crimes are truly vile. The revelations emerged in the early 1990s. None of this was known to the BBC in the 1930s, but once it became public, attention turned to the statue at the broadcasting house. It stands directly above the main doors, a nude chart-like aerial held beneath the towering figure of Prospero. What had once been symbolic suddenly appeared to be very unsettling.

15:59 And then of course everything I have discussed in this video came to light. With these two things mixed together, people began to feel incredibly uneasy. Campaigners argued that a broadcaster so deeply damaged by abuse scandals had no justification for keeping an artwork created by an artist with Gills history, especially one that did seem quite strange given the context. But the BBC pushed back. It argued that the statue was part of the building's heritage and that removing it would be an attempt to rewrite history. The BBC said that it was important to preserve the artwork, not to honor the artist, but to acknowledge the context in which the building had been created. The debate then reignited in the year 2022 when a man attacked the statue with a hammer.

16:47 He scaled the building, shouting about Eric Gil's offenses and smashing the stone before being arrested. In the end, the statue remains one of the most controversial pieces of public artwork in Britain. After the statue was attacked, the BBC restored it, and there it remains to this day. Now, if I had a piece of artwork like this on the front of my house, and I knew it was made by someone like Eric Gil, it would be gone extremely fast.

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "The DISGUSTING Case of The BBC"?

In order: 0:00 Dame Janet Smith review, Operation Utree, Ralph Harris; 3:00 Ralph Harris, Stuart Hall; 6:00 Chris Denning, Jonathan King; 9:00 Jonathan King, Chris Denning, Gary Glitter; 12:00 Prospero and Ariel.

What is mentioned in this Disturban episode?

9 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Ralph Harris, Jonathan King, Chris Denning, Eric Gill, Operation Utree, Dame Janet Smith review. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "The DISGUSTING Case of The BBC"?

The episode runs 17 min; the transcript is about 2,630 words in 19 timestamped sections.

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