Radio Times: Review by:; Mark Braxton

“Punk wasn’t a unified movement; it was a bunch of really jealous people trying to outdo each other.” So says a golf-sweatered but still spiky-haired John Lydon in tonight’s peek at punk from 1976–78.

The programme touches on the trappings we’re familiar with – the tribalism and spitting, the Sex Pistols’ live-TV swearathon – but comes alive when conveying the creativity. For many teenagers punk was “our time”, and a real DIY spirit was born. Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks recalls a £500 outlay to press 1,000 copies of their debut EP: “It was just the easiest way of doing it.” Like the riotous gig footage, it’s both exhilarating and farcical.

About this programme

2/3. The documentary reaches the pinnacle of the punk era, 1976 to 1978, exploring how bands including the Sex Pistols and Buzzcocks helped spread the genre's popularity around the UK. The Roxy nightclub in London's Covent Garden proved a hotspot for bands including the Jam to gain support, but the Sex Pistols' split in 1978 proved a blow to the future of punk. With contributions by John Lydon, Mick Jones, Paul Weller and Siouxsie Sioux. Narrated by Peter Capaldi.