BBC chiefs face a backlash for putting their Jimmy Savile drama up against an ITV show about the Yorkshire Ripper.
Critics described the clash featuring the two fiends as “ill-judged”.
The Reckoning, with Steve Coogan as paedophile TV star Savile, debuts next Monday at 9pm — the same time as ITV1’s The Long Shadow, chronicling the murders of Peter Sutcliffe.
The Savile drama was announced three years ago, with the BBC insisting it wanted it delivered with minimal upset to victims.
But a TV insider said: “This effectively brings together two of the biggest monsters of the 1970s and 80s simultaneously on Britain’s two biggest channels.
“This feels ill-judged and insensitive.
“Victims of both will wonder who at the BBC thought this would be a good idea.
“ITV1 can hardly be blamed as The Long Shadow started in the 9pm slot two weeks ago.”
The two monsters struck up a friendship when Savile was volunteering at Broadmoor high security psychiatric hospital, where Sutcliffe was locked up.
It has been suggested by some criminologists that the pair may even have colluded in the killing of Irene Richardson in Leeds in 1977.
Sutcliffe is played by Mark Stobbart in The Long Shadow, which focuses more on the impact of the killings rather than the crimes.
The BBC said: “We were unaware of any plans from ITV.
“We have long discussed this transmission date with the survivors.”
