Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile passed away on Saturday, just 2 days before his 85th birthday. Tributes have poured in from across the world of entertainment for a man who clearly occupied a special place in the hearts of many, many people.

Today’s young kids would probably be pretty bemused, perhaps even a bit frightened, if you showed them an old tape of Jim’ll Fix It and told them this was the man children used to dream of meeting, but we think it’s rather sad that such an eccentric figure would stand little chance of getting a gig like that today.

When Ant and Dec finally shuffle off this mortal coil, or when the time comes for Dave Benson-Phillips to kick the (gunge-filled) bucket, will they be remembered with the same level of genuine fondness? Not likely.

True, there was a lot more to Jimmy Savile than kids’ TV. Years before he began presenting Top of the Pops in 1964, he was pioneering the art of DJing. He launched the world’s first DJ dance party in 1943, playing jazz records at the Loyal Order of Ancient Shepherds in Otley. He claimed to have been the first person to use twin turntables for continuous mixing, having started using this technique in 1947.

In his own words: “There was this amazing effect: what I was doing was causing 12 people to do something. And I thought, I can make them dance quick. Or slow. Or stop. Or start. And all this was very heady stuff: that one person was doing something to all these people. And that’s really the thing that triggered me off and sustained me for the rest of me days.”

Some have even credited Savile as the ‘Lord of the bling’; the man who inspired hip-hop fashion.

He was also heavily involved in charity work, much of which took place at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, and he ran in over 200 marathons – not bad for such an enthusiastic cigar smoker.

Be sure to check out our Jim’ll Fix It t-shirts, the perfect tribute to this Leeds legend.