Secrets of the Bay City Rollers; Inside the Iranian Uprising

“This documentary is powerful and sensitively made, and helps dismantle the culture of shame and silence that suppressed these men’s stories for decades. But there is a criticism to level at the programme. Both its innocuous title and upbeat opening minutes lure viewers into a false sense of security, as though it is a look at the high highs and low lows of 70s pop stardom rather than this straightforward nosedive into hades. Given how careful and kind Nicky Campbell is with his subjects, that consideration should be passed on to viewers.”
Leila Latif, The Guardian

“If Secrets of the Bay City Rollers had a failing, it was that it didn’t shed light on the musical workings of the band; it would have been instructive to learn how, even as he groomed victims, Paton ensured the Rollers kept on churning out sunny chart-toppers. But that didn’t detract from the overall impact of a documentary which suggested that Jimmy Savile was not the only ghastly presence to haunt the music industry in the 1970s – and which movingly raised the question of how such abuse was able to continue for so long, and to leave behind so many broken lives.”
Ed Power, The Telegraph

“Stories of their controlling manager Tam Paton’s grooming and abuse are not secret — he was jailed in 1982 for gross indecency with teenage boys — but it was shocking to see it all laid out so starkly.”
Joe Clay, The Times

“They might merit a ten-minute segment in a documentary on the evolution of boy bands, but the music and flash-in-the-pan fashion isn’t worth the treatment it received in an hour-long programme, Secrets Of The Bay City Rollers. Of course there is the sordid side of the story, the allegations of sexual abuse by their manager, Tam Paton. That too would have been better examined as just one aspect of the paedophilia and sex crime rife in the 1970s music industry.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“There is an unspeakable power in pulling these fragments together and allowing them to tell a fuller story. It is horrifying, harrowing and a testament to the remarkable bravery of those who dared to protest, as well as those who recorded it.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian