As the beloved Narnia cast reunites, a haunting revelation from their past emerges, casting a dark shadow over their cherished memories of the series.

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Jimmy Savile died in 2011 before he could be convicted of his crimes. (Image: Getty)

The original cast of the BBC’s Narnia series has revealed they were warned about Jimmy Savile when they were still children. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which aired in 1988, was the first of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books to be adapted by the BBC. It marked the beginning of a three-part adaptation of the beloved novels.

The show featured a group of young actors in the lead roles, with Sophie Wilcox playing Lucy, Richard Dempsey as Peter, Sophie Cook as Susan, and Jonathan R. Scott as Edmund. Nearly 40 years later, the original cast reunited for a two-hour documentary titled Return to Narnia. In a conversation about their experiences, Cook, who was just 13 when she first played Susan, shared a chilling memory.

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe cast.

The cast of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe pictured. (Image: BBC)

 

“It was a very strange time,” Cook recalled. “I don’t know if anyone’s told you the story of Jimmy Savile being in the next studio when we were filming at TV Centre [in White City, west London]? One of the floor managers came up to us and said, ‘Don’t go near him, he’s a kiddie fiddler.’”

Cook went on to explain that Savile’s reputation was widely known, even back then, though it wasn’t discussed openly. “It was just known… [I’m] not picking holes in the BBC. I think it was just… culturally accepted. There was this level of knowledge, this awareness of something darker, just one studio away.”

The new interview, published in The Times, touched on how the actors were thrust into the spotlight at a young age, including the unsettling warning about Savile.

Allegations against Savile had circulated as early as the 1980s, but it wasn’t until after his death in 2011 that a full police investigation was launched. Over his decades-long career, Savile sexually abused hundreds of children and women, using his celebrity status and powerful connections to conceal his crimes.

In response to Cook’s comments, the BBC issued a statement: “Following the revelations about Savile, the BBC commissioned former Court of Appeal judge Dame Janet Smith DBE to carry out a thorough, independent review of the culture and practices of the BBC during the years he worked here. This review, published in 2016, led to the acceptance of its conclusions and recommendations, and since then, several changes have been implemented to help prevent anything like this from happening again.”