A new two-part documentary about sexual predator and former prime-time entertainer Rolf Harris will give voice to survivors who were previously too afraid to speak publicly about their experiences, the ABC says.

Harris, who was convicted and jailed in 2014 for a string of sexual assaults on young girls between 1968  and 1986, died three years ago at the age of 93.

In a media release accompanying a trailer for the documentary, due to air next month, the ABC said Rolf Harris: Primetime Predator would bring together “the full story of one of entertainment’s most disturbing double lives”.

“Featuring survivors who have never spoken publicly before, the series charts Harris’s rise from suburban Perth to the heights of British fame and influence, while revealing the pattern of abuse that unfolded behind the scenes for decades.”

The broadcaster said the silence that once protected Harris – who was made an OBE, MBE and CBE before his colossal fall from grace – had begun to lift in recent years.

It promised the new documentary, directed by Nick Sweeney with executive producers Karina Holden and John Smithson, would examine how “charisma, institutional loyalty, and cultural reverence allowed a predator to flourish”.

“His death has finally lifted a veil of fear once cast by this powerful figure, and survivors who long feared retribution are at last able to speak.”

Clips of interviews with two survivors feature in the trailer for Primetime Predator.

“I’ve been completely anonymous about this,” says one.

“It takes a lot to be able to talk about it.”

Rolf Harris leaves a London court in 2017. Photo: Getty

Perth-born Harris forged a hugely successful six-decade entertainment career across Australia and Britain from the early 1950s, including hosting children’s and variety television shows, and recording hit songs such as Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport; Jake the Peg, and Two Little Boys.

He worked with the Beatles – including compering a season of their Christmas shows in London in 1963 – and presented himself as the affable inventor of the novelty musical instrument the wobble board.

Part of Harris’s TV shtick involved creating rapid paintings on large boards while asking: “Can you tell what it is yet?”. (When the ABC originally announced the two-part documentary as part of its 2026 slate of shows last November, it had the working title Rolf Harris: Can You Tell What I Am Yet?)

He was so respected in Britain that he was commissioned by the BBC in 2005 to paint a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II to mark her 80^th birthday, and six years later took part in a concert celebrating her diamond jubilee.

Harris performed at Queen Elizabeth II’s golden jubilee concert. Photo: PA

The Primetime Predator trailer features archival clips showing him meeting the Queen, playing the didgeridoo, boxing with a kangaroo, and appearing on and hosting different TV shows.

“He was seen as the quintessential Aussie, the knockabout larrikin bloke you could trust,” writer Kathy Lette says in the promo.

“But all the time he was leading this sort of sinister double life.”

Harris’s double life came to a sudden, shocking end in 2013 when the one-time national treasure was arrested amid a huge British police investigation launched following revelations that BBC TV host Jimmy Savile had been a prolific child abuser.

In 2014, after a trial at Southwark Crown Court in London, Harris was found guilty of 12 counts of assaulting four girls between 1968-1986, although one conviction was later overturned on appeal.

Prosecutors had portrayed the entertainer as having a “Jekyll and Hyde” personality, and said he used his fame to exploit his victims. One of those involved in the trial had been a childhood friend of his daughter Bindi and testified that she was just 13 when Harris first abused her.

“You have shown no remorse for your crimes at all,” the judge told Harris during sentencing. “Your reputation now lies in ruins … but you have no one to blame but yourself.”

After Harris was sentenced to almost six years in jail and stripped of his honours, a number of other women came forward claiming they, too, had been assaulted by him.

Harris was released from jail in 2017 and returned to his Berkshire home with wife Alwen. He died there six years later from what a death certificate described as neck cancer and “frailty from old age”.

Rolf Harris: Primetime Predator will premiere on June 9 at 8.30pm on ABC TV, with both episodes available to stream on ABC iview.

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