“I’ve always wanted to do a film about the 60s, which were my formative period,” says Broomfield. The Rolling Stones in 1964, left to right: Mick Jagger, Bill Wyman, Brian Jones, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts. The narrative unfolds slowly in an evocative, mesmerising and sometimes heartrending interweaving of first-hand testimony and rich archive footage: a portrayal of a gilded time of astonishing creativity, but also of self-destructiveness and inevitable tragedy.

Unlike many of his previous documentaries, in which he appears onscreen as a character in the unfolding story, Broomfield is present here only as interviewer and in a voiceover. The tumultuous seven-year period that Jones spent as a Rolling Stone, as well as the troubled childhood and adolescence that preceded them, are explored in depth in Broomfield’s latest film, The Stones and Brian Jones. The coroner’s report concluded that it was “death by misadventure”, and noted that his liver and heart were greatly enlarged by sustained drug and alcohol consumption. Just six years after their encounter on the Cheltenham train, though, on 3 July 1969, Brian Jones was found dead in the swimming pool of his home, Cotchford Farm, in rural Sussex.

In the subsequent TV interviews and press conferences that attended the rapid ascendancy of the Rolling Stones, Broomfield’s fleeting impression of the musician was borne out, as he engaged effortlessly with the media, coming across as the most pleasant and articulate band member.

Wayward son waterstones edition