When British people think of Jimmy Savile, it isn’t typically as someone whose style to admire. But at screenings of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, the latest film in the 28 Days Later franchise which was released this month, that does seem to be what some US filmgoers are thinking.
In the film, a murderous cult known as “the Jimmies” stalk the ruins of post‑apocalyptic 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. Over more than 50 years, Savile exploited his fame and access to positions of trust to abuse hundreds of people, most of them children. His crimes took place backstage at television shows such as Top of the Pops but also in hospitals, children’s homes and institutions in which he had cultivated influence and free rein.
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. “It totally exists in the story to unsettle,” he said.
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In the film’s timeline (if the first film is set in the present), Britain collapses in 2002 – before Savile’s crimes became widely known by the public. It’s not clear when the characters in Bone Temple would have encountered him, given that the peak of his fame predated their fictional lives. But the gang idolise Savile not because he is sinister but because the world never knew the truth, and in this story, never would. The irony, of course, is that the audience do, which is why the imagery is meant to unsettle, not inspire fancy dress.
In the US and Canada, however, the reference appears to be lost on some fans of the franchise. Clips, photos, and even dedicated fan accounts of the Jimmies are circulating on social media, showing viewers turning up to screenings dressed as the “Jimmy Gang”, wearing tracksuits, gold chains, cigars, and the signature white bob, seemingly unaware of the real-life Savile scandal that inspired them.
Some videos go further, imagining specific dance moves each Jimmy would perform, showcasing their cosplays, or enthusiastically idolising Sir Jimmy Crystal as a character in his own right.
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O’Connell himself – perhaps jokingly – has been broadly supportive of people enjoying the costume, telling Entertainment Weekly: “It’s a great feeling to be in that attire. Don’t even just limit it to Halloween. Whenever you want, you know?!”
Robert Rhodes, who plays Jimmy Jimmy in the film, admitted to Metro that he only realised the resemblance at his costume fitting, thinking: “Am I dressed as Jimmy Savile?”
Britons have been quick to criticise the outfits, though many US fans argue that Savile was never a household name in their country and that his infamy simply hasn’t reached across the Atlantic.
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This isn’t the first time Americans have got Savile wrong. Netflix’s Tiger King star Carole Baskin once fell victim to a bad-taste prank by the Australian comedian Tom Armstrong, who paid for one of her $199 personalised video messages asking her to record a birthday greeting for Savile and convicted paedophile Rolf Harris. Baskin later insisted she had no idea whom either man was when she made the video.
The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw described 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple as a film “in which there is real human jeopardy and conflict. Non-zombies are more cinematic.” Yet perhaps the more disturbing horror is that figures such as Savile, within a generation, can be reduced to a wig, a look or a meme, and stripped of the context that once made them truly monstrous.
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Given Savile’s relative obscurity outside the UK, it was perhaps inevitable that some viewers would latch on to the look without understanding its origins. Still, British audiences may hope the penny drops sooner rather than later.