Family And Friends Say Farewell To Sir Jimmy

The funeral of Sir Jimmy Savile will be held in Leeds Cathedral this afternoon a day after thousands of people trooped past his coffin as he lay in state in a hotel bar.

The TV and radio star left a list of final wishes including being laid out in a gold-coloured coffin and being buried on a tilt in Scarborough.

The Catholic funeral will be led by the bishop of Leeds, Rt Rev Arthur Roche, and attended by a Catholic mix of Papal knights and former Radio 1 DJs.

Sir Jimmy, a regular church-goer, was a Papal Knight Commander of St Gregory the Great, and as a radio DJ and presenter of Top of The Pops, a contemporary of guests Dave Lee Travis, Andy Peebles and Mike Read.

John Grady from the Diocese of Leeds told Sky News the funeral will celebrate both aspects of his life.

"It's a bit him and it's a bit not him. It's sort of the Jimmy that we knew, the bling and everything else, but it's the Jimmy that's also devoted to his church," he said.

In life, Jimmy Savile was an instantly recognisable celebrity with a career spanning the early days of commercial radio, the first and last episodes of Top of the Pops and his eponymous Jim'll Fix It TV show.

He was also an accomplished athlete and a philanthropist who raised tens of millions of pounds for charity.

His funeral follows what must been one of the strangest days Leeds has seen in recent years - with thousands of people filing past Sir Jimmy's coffin as he lay in state in the main bar of the Queens Hotel - a final wish that his family was determined should be carried out.

"He'd be the first one in line to come here, he really would. He would have loved it," said his nephew, Roger Foster.

Sir Jimmy will be buried in a hillside cemetery in Scarborough, his adopted seaside home, with his coffin tilted at 45 degrees so it looks out over the resort's North Bay.

With the help of his family and friends, Sir Jimmy Savile is proving to be as unconventional in death as he was in life.

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