Jack Vance is based on Jimmy Savile, OMG!
I based psycho on Jimmy Savile, says writer Val McDermid
By Dailyrecord.co.uk, 28-10-2012
BEST-SELLING crime writer Val McDermid has told how one of her most sinister characters was based on Savile.
The ex-journalist was deeply uneasy when she met Savile in 1977 and he later inspired her character Jacko Vance.
The TV celebrity with a secret lust for torture, murder and under-age girls first featured in the 1997 bestseller The Wire in the Blood and returned in two later books.
Vance, a former athlete, hung about hospitals and toured towns in a show called Vance’s Visits – similar to the Savile’s Travels radio show.
Val, 57, said: “People often asked me where I had got the inspiration for the character.
“They never guessed it was Savile. For a start, Jacko is handsome and charming. I assume Savile didn’t recognise himself in that…