Manson: The Lost Tapes
ITV, 9.00PM
Charles Manson, Californian cult leader and murderer, who died in prison last November after 46 years’ incarceration, continues to exert a grim fascination on those with a taste for the macabre. Perhaps because he represents the ultimate charismatic bogey man, who gathered and groomed a “family” of deeply vulnerable young people around him, to the point where they were willing to do anything, even commit mass murder in his name.
This documentary is based on footage assembled by the late film-maker Robert Hendrickson, whose 1973 documentary Manson was one of the first to emerge in the wake of Manson’s conviction, along with four of his followers, for the murder of seven people – including the actress Sharon Tate. This two-part film begins with the story of Manson’s troubled childhood and adolescence and how, fresh out of prison in 1968, aged 32, he began to draw followers in, setting himself up as a messianic figure with a vision of violent revolution. It
features rare, previously unseen and frequently disturbing interviews with a number of Manson’s
followers, among them Dianne Lake, Catherine Share and Paul Watkins. Gerard O’donovan