28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’s Jimmies didn’t know of Savile connection

When stepping onto set for the highly anticipated latest movie in the 28 Days Later franchise, a string of actors were shocked to discover they would be dressing up as Jimmy Savile.

Picking up just minutes after the end of last year’s 28 Years Later, sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple serves as the fourth instalment in the film series and follows Spike (Alfie Williams) as he’s inducted into Sir Jimmy Crystal’s (Jack O’Connell) gang of radical cult killers.

However, the end of the last film ended with an adult Jimmy dressed up as a Savile-like figure – donning a shell suit, gold chain and blonde bob – leading many to question his mirroring of the late sex offender.

Although the former TV presenter and DJ, who was once a beloved public figure, was unmasked as a prolific sexual predator following his death in 2011, the film sees him still held in high regard as the Rage virus swept through the UK in 2002 and thus his crimes were never revealed.

Executive producer Danny Boyle (who also directed the first two films in the franchise) previously confirmed the disgraced entertainer – who was accused of hundreds of cases of sexual abuse – was the inspiration for Jimmy and his gang’s appearance.

‘He’s as much to do with pop culture as he is to do with sportswear, to do with cricket, to do with the honours system. It’s all kind of twisting in this partial remembrance, clinging onto things and then recreating them as an image for followers,’ he said.

However, many of the actors who were cast as part of Jimmy’s gang in The Bone Temple were taken aback upon realising their characters would be wearing costumes so closely linked with the predator.

That included Robert Rhodes, who plays Jimmy Jimmy and told Metro at the film’s London premiere how he was caught completely off guard.

‘So, when I signed on, I knew I was called Jimmy. However, in my costume fitting, I kind of had an inkling, I kind of left it going, “Um, am I dressed as Jimmy Savile?”,’ he said.

‘And then from there went, “Okay, I am!” But through speaking about it, I realised that it’s incredibly clever, what is done, because I obviously am the age where I saw that media coverage as it came out – and imagining a world where that didn’t happen is so wild.

‘And I think that really adds into just how wild this whole film is.’

Meanwhile, Connor Newall, who plays Jimmy Shite, said it was his mum who made the connection.

‘I was in the make-up trailer, I got the wig on, and I called my mum and she said, “You look like Jimmy Savile!” It’s an interesting one, but Alex Garland is a genius and the stuff that he creates is his own thing,’ he said.

‘But it’s brought an even more sinister outlook to the movie because of the obvious. So, it gives the audience even more scare-factor, but for some reason they love the Jimmies!’

For Irish actress Maura Bird – who plays Jimmy Jones – she didn’t so much have a personal connection to Savile and his shocking crimes, but did see him as a ‘creepy character’ ripe for using as inspiration.

‘Well, this is the thing, when this world went down, Jimmy Savile, it hadn’t come out what had happened when he was in his career yet. So, I suppose his name – it hadn’t been found out.

‘I’m Irish, so I didn’t really grow up in that culture, so it wasn’t such a big [thing]. I didn’t grow up watching Jimmy Savile, he was just someone for me, in my personal life as Maura Bird, I just knew him as this creepy guy, you know?

‘So, it was kind of, “oh, I’m in a horror film [as a character] that resembles a creepy guy”. It wasn’t a really big reveal to me. I remember when it was brought up, it was like it’s not been confirmed, so I was like, okay, well I’ll not talk about it then!’

Although Sam Locke (Jimmy Fox) said he hoped none of the actors had to draw upon real-life situations to play a Jimmy, he said the gang developed a strong ‘synergy’, adding that: ‘I suppose it surprised me how easy it was.’

Although 28 Years Later left many viewers terrified with its scary scenes, The Bone Temple has been labelled an ‘unpredictable, blood-drenched sequel’.

Metro’s review of the film declared it was ‘extremely violent and gory – sadistically so – to a degree that some viewers won’t be able to tolerate’.

Despite this, Locke reassured viewers that the film was actually humorous.

‘It genuinely surprised me when I watched it how funny it was because Alex Garland, all credit to Alex, he penned a brilliant second film,’ Locke said.

‘And obviously, he wrote the comedy in there, but I feel as if it was down to the performers to bring it to that extra level. And there were moments on set where we would all just break down in laughter and have to try and rein it in, and thankfully we did because the darkness wouldn’t be as dark if we didn’t,’ he said.

To lighten the mood on set, O’Connell also had a very unexpected use of Natasha Bedingfield during the film’s most grisly scene.

‘Oh jeez, Jack O’Connell’s f**king great craic. He’s so much fun. If I ever get on a film with him again, I’d be lucky. He just makes it very light,’ Bird recalled.

‘I remember myself and Rob, we were in this f**king freezing barn, it was so cold that there was the Northern Lights outside. We were getting sticky blood on our hands, and it was just quite uncomfortable, and Jack just started singing “No one else can feel it for you, only you can let it in, no one else”. Great song! What’s it called again? [TB: ‘Unwritten!’]. So yeah, we had a lot of sing-alongs and just little pick-me-ups because it was quite heavy material.

‘They say that right, with comedy films, everyone’s serious and then with horror films, it’s like we can joke around.’

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is released in UK cinemas today and US cinemas from Friday.

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