'Sir Jimmy' revels in the Lochaber outdoors

As the life of eccentric television personality Sir Jimmy Savile is pored over by the British media, few will realise the outdoors world has lost a friend and supporter.

Back in March, Sir Jimmy appeared in a remarkable six-minute film promoting the area around Britain’s highest mountain in a series of daredevil activities.

Of course, the stunt cycling, whitewater kayaking and mountain running were all actually performed by top outdoors athletes including Mike Pescod, David ‘Spook’ Munro, Joe Barnes, Danny MacAskill, BJ Doherty and Callum Anderson.

But Sir Jimmy himself did appear in the MTBcut video, directed by Fraser Copeland, extolling the virtues of Fort William and Lochaber from the comfort of an armchair. But, the 84-year-old, who died yesterday, also featured in the film standing on the path leading to Ben Nevis and revealed he had taken part in the Half Ben Race 35 times.

He was also a prolific marathon runner and, as Caledonian Mercury outdoors correspondent Dave Hewitt revealed in his account of an interview with the man behind Jim’ll Fix it, cycled thousands of miles.

Mr Hewitt reveals that, in contrast to the usual journalist’s task of levering a few facts out of taciturn celebrities, his main problem was shutting up the Leeds-born disk-jockey as deadline approached.

Dave Hewitt’s affectionate piece details how Sir Jimmy would wave to passers-by from the cottage in Glencoe, facing the Three Sisters as they passed through the dramatic scenery where he bought his Highland ‘gaff’ at Allt-na-Ruigh.

Sir Jimmy admitted in the Outdoors Capital video his doctor told him he was ‘odd’, and in his self-deprecating way, he said: “Winter sports? Only idiots would do that; but I’ve been an idiot all my life. I can recommend it most of the time, but not all the time.”

And somewhere in Lochaber are a redundant £40 shell suit, blond wig and false cigar.

Sir Jimmy Savile 1926-2011