The Cult Next Door

BBC Four

11:30 PM to 12:30 AM

Tuesday 4 February

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The extraordinary story of a strange cult that came to light in 2013, when three women emerged from a small flat in Brixton, south London, after decades in captivity. The documentary traces the group back to its roots in the 1970s, when Aravindan Balakrishnan, who believed in an international communist revolution, created a tiny political sect that followed the teachings of China's Chairman Mao. However, his left-wing collective evolved into a pseudo-religious cult, in which members were controlled, threatened and brainwashed so that they were too terrified to leave