Given the depth of the scandal which now surrounds Savile, chat show host Gerry Kelly said it would be easy for him to now claim he knew back then that something was amiss.

But while he had to "take him at his word" when Savile denied - without prompting - that he was a paedophile, Gerry admitted that his gut instinct was to dislike his interviewee.

"I didn't like him. A very odd man ... Probably would use the word 'sleazy' about him," he told UTV Live Tonight anchor Paul Clark.

And when asked what Savile was like when the cameras stopped rolling, the immediate response was again: "Sleazy."

Gerry even recounted how his female producer had refused to ever be alone with Savile in the lift that served his plush penthouse apartment in Leeds where the interview was filmed.

"She just felt very uncomfortable in his presence," he said.

There was something about him that made me want to ask the questions and he never, never satisfactorily answered.

Gerry Kelly

Back in 2006, Jimmy Savile was just about to turn 80 and the tabloids had long been obsessed with the private life of the eccentric tracksuit-wearing, cigar-smoking star.

Rumours had been rife, but during Savile's lifetime they remained just that. Despite allegations and even investigations, details of which only fully surfaced after his death, no one ever proved them.

In his interview with Gerry Kelly, he boasted that they never would.

"They're looking for the dirt on Jimmy Savile ..." Gerry began, as the interview turned to talk of the intense tabloid speculation.

"And so they should have done," Savile interrupted.

But when Gerry noted that they "never, ever found it", his interviewee was ready with his answer.

"There isn't any."

I'm very boring ... I don't do drugs, I don't do underage sex or any of them things that you read in the papers.

Jimmy Savile

During the course of the interview, Savile addressed issues including why he never married and why he didn't have or want children of his own. He insisted he "never loved" the children he met while hosting the TV show Jim'll Fix It.

"I respected them and they respected me. They knew that I wasn't some yucky adult ..." Savile said.

The youngest of a family of seven, he also recalled his relationship with his mother, fondly referring to her as "the Duchess". But while they were close, he insisted that he wasn't her favourite and for good reason.

"I was the odd one out," he said, his tone matter-of-fact.

"Everybody else was nice and normal. They got married and had rows and all that sort of stuff. She knew how to deal with them. She didn't know how to deal with me."

While the interview can now be viewed in a new light, Gerry Kelly said it didn't prove anything at the time and that neither he nor his crew had any idea just what was to later be revealed.

"It would be clever of me to say: 'Yeah, there was something there.' But honestly, we walked away not liking the man. Nobody liked him - no one in the crew liked him. But that's all," Gerry said.

"We didn't go away thinking he lied through his teeth from start to finish. We had no reason, other than what was written on the Internet, to disbelieve him."

We took him at his word, as everybody did at the time.

Gerry Kelly

But he added that he did find it "hugely odd" that Savile would be the one to bring up the issue of under-age sex.

"Because that was exactly what I was reading at the time," Gerry explained.

"And if I, as a journalist in Belfast, was reading those type of things and understood what was going on ... Wouldn't you wonder what those people who knew him best of all must have been thinking?

"They must have known his reputation; they must have known the truth behind Jimmy Savile. But still no one was ever able to pin anything on him."

Now, six years after that interview, Scotland Yard is investigating Savile as one of the most prolific sex offenders in recent history. Almost 300 suspected victims have contacted police.

Questions are also being asked about why it has taken so long for the extent of the child sex abuse to come to light - particularly given historic allegations and a shelved BBC Newsnight investigation.

Savile died last year at the age of 84, but criminal proceedings could yet be brought against others who are still alive and have been named in allegations.

Scotland Yard officers are said to be "preparing an arrest strategy", but no one has yet been arrested or interviewed under caution.