Why US cinemagoers are dressing as Jimmy Savile to see 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

"In the film, a murderous cult known as the Jimmies stalk the ruins of postapocalyptic Britain. Led by Sir Jimmy Crystal, played by Jack O'Connell, the sect are instantly recognisable for their cheap tracksuits, bleached blonde wigs and particular mannerisms. For viewers in the UK, Crystal is unmistakably reminiscent of the entertainer Jimmy Savile, whose decades-long history of sexual abuse was only revealed after his death."

"The film's producer, Danny Boyle, and O'Connell have been clear that Sir Jimmy Crystal was designed as a Savile-inspired figure. Boyle told Business Insider that the character draws on Savile's entire pop-cultural footprint, all kind of twisting in this partial remembrance that Crystal's followers then recreate as an image. O'Connell told the Hollywood Reporter his character models himself on the memory of this figure that was always on TV, describing it as a warning about the dangers of weaponised nostalgia and unchecked power."

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple portrays a murderous cult called the Jimmies roaming a postapocalyptic Britain. The cult is led by Sir Jimmy Crystal, depicted with cheap tracksuits, bleached wigs and familiar mannerisms that evoke the entertainer Jimmy Savile. Savile exploited his fame and access to positions of trust over more than 50 years to abuse hundreds of people, most of them children, in backstage, hospital and institutional settings. The Sir Jimmy Crystal figure draws on Savile's pop-cultural footprint and recreated memory to unsettle and function as a warning about weaponised nostalgia and unchecked power. The film's timeline places Britain’s collapse in 2002, before Savile's crimes became widely known.

Read at www.theguardian.com