Several members of veteran British dance troupe Pan's People have recalled how they were preyed upon by paedophile Tv presenter Sir Jimmy Savile during their 1970s heyday.

The glamorous dancers were regular guests on U.K. music show Top of the Pops, performing backing routines to the week's biggest hits.

Now two members, Dee Dee Wilde and Louise Clarke, have told how the show's most popular presenter Savile, who was unmasked as a serial sex abuser following his death in 2011, lured them into his van during a recording.

The stars insist they were left unnerved by the "slimy and repulsive" Dj and fled when he "leered" at them.

Wilde, who was in her mid-20s at the time of the incident, tells Britain's Mail on Sunday newspaper, "Our paths crossed with Jimmy Savile constantly because of Top of the Pops. I hated him.

"I used to see young girls lining up outside his van and knew there was something wrong there. If a young dancer who's preoccupied with her dancing, make-up and hair could notice that, and notice how slimy and repulsive he was, surely other people noticed too?

"We felt very uncomfortable about Jimmy but were more or less bulldozed into being nice to him. He was extremely powerful. So when he said to me, 'You must come and see my van,' I almost felt obliged to. I remember walking up the steps with Louise and he leered at us and said, 'Have a look in the back.' I opened the door and there was this enormous bed. Nothing else, just a seven foot (long) bed. I remember thinking, 'This is his knocking shop (sex room). Oh my God, how repulsive.'...

"A lot of the girls who came to Top of the Pops were very young. Jimmy used to make a bee-line for them. He was always surrounded by pretty young girls. And he was just creepy."

A third dancer, Cherry Gillespie, adds, "I was only 17 when I joined Pan's People and, when I first appeared on the set, Jimmy Savile came over to introduce himself and French-kissed my hand, which I found one of the most repulsive acts ever."

Bbc bosses launched a wide-ranging probe after it emerged following Savile's death that he had abused more than 400 victims dating back decades.