The new four-part Sky documentary about music producer and murderer Phil Spector successfully walked the line between celebration and condemnation.
It’s impossible to tell the story of the man – infamously described as “flawed” by the BBC at the time of his death in 2021 – without acknowledging his remarkable achievements in the music business.
To know him may not be to love him – to paraphrase his breakthrough bubblegum pop classic – but it does help us understand why he did what he did.
The documentary sidestepped any criticism of insensitivity by spending a good portion of its hefty running time by focusing on the life of the woman he shot dead in 2003, actress Lana Clarkson.
TV Review: Spector is fascinating documentary
Callously dismissed as “a B-movie actress” by Spector’s lawyers and the media, Lana’s life was the antithesis of Spector’s.
His ascent in showbusiness came after a troubled childhood during which his father took his own life (“To know him was to love him” was the epitaph on the gravestone) as well as well-documented mental health struggles.
Even after Spector achieved incredible success with songs that redefined the sound of the 1960s, he was quick to anger and violence – to the point that his ultimate crime against Lana felt inevitable.
Lana, on the other hand, was the light to Spector’s darkness. Although she never got the break she needed to make it big, her optimism shone through.
But running these two life stories in parallel Sheena M Joyce and Don Argott’s documentary avoided some of the criticism that has been laid at the door of previous celebrity crime stories.
Spector’s musical legacy and criminal legacy remain – and neither is diminished by this fascinating documentary.
