As young stars smile brightly and declare their love for him, this documentary about a music svengali’s gruesome history of abuse is a rare and terrifying insight into how grooming works

Hold on to your hats here but – I think it’s possible that the patriarchy might not be a great system by which to organise a society. Mainly because of the men in it.

It is hard not to see the headlines (Sexual abuse and harassment! Murders! Domestic violence! Add “police” to all of those and “celebrity”, “footballer”, “politician”, “coach” or “priest” to most of them) and start to draw some vague conclusions. Immerse yourself in the world of Netflix and other documentaries about abuse – most recently the one about Bill Cosby, but you can take your pick from a multitude of others, from Jimmy Savile to Michael Jackson to Jeffrey Epstein to Harvey Weinstein to R Kelly via many, many more – and it becomes hard not to ask the question: does any man strive to gain wealth or influence for any reason other than to reach a point where they can abuse with impunity those under their control? How long do we give it before we start treating anyone who wants to become rich, famous or powerful in any way as automatically suspect?