Rolling Stone: Stories from the Edge

It provides an inside look at the magazine's probing 1975 report on Patty Hearst's kidnappers, detailing the investigation and its significance. The programme also covers the arrival of the Sex Pistols and examines John Lennon's final days, situating these events within the same turbulent period.

This programme offers an inside perspective on a magazine’s investigative 1975 report, presenting viewers with a behind‑the‑scenes look at the way the story was put together. It’s framed as a single episode that pulls together several of the year’s most talked‑about moments, giving the audience a sense of how the publication tackled each one. The core of the episode follows three distinct threads. First, it examines the magazine’s deep‑dive into the kidnappers of Patty Hearst, outlining the questions that drove the reporting. Next, it turns to the arrival of the Sex Pistols, charting how the band’s sudden emergence caught the press’s attention. Finally, it covers the closing days of John Lennon, recounting how the magazine reported on the events surrounding his final moments. Beyond the main stories, the show stitches these episodes together, showing how the publication’s approach to each headline reflected the cultural climate of the mid‑1970s. By moving from a high‑profile kidnapping case to the rise of a punk icon and then to the tragic end of a music legend, the episode paints a picture of a year in which the magazine was at the centre of some of the era’s most compelling news.