Radio Times Top 40 TV Shows of 2016: 40 to 31

38. Louis Theroux: Savile (BBC2)

When the revelations about Jimmy Savile broke, one man who felt he needed to look hard at his own culpability was Louis Theroux, who during his 2000 documentary When Louis Met Jimmy had become quite friendly with Savile. This film was a lot tougher, on Savile, the people around him and Theroux himself. With the benefit of hindsight, the footage from 16 years ago was disturbing and Theroux didn’t allow himself any easy excuses, listening to victims’ harrowing stories, but also hearing from those close to Savile who are still in denial. It was a powerful, important piece of film-making. David Crawford