The scale of the controversy intensified when the Church of Scientology released a 40 second clip of video footage showing the segment of a screaming argument between John Sweeney and Scientologist Tommy Davis at the Psychiatry: An Industry of Death museum, regarding Sweeney's use of the word "cult" to describe the Church of Scientology.[2] In the argument, Sweeney yelled "You were not there at the beginning of the interview! You were not there! You did not hear or record all the interview!". The interview that Sweeney is referring to is the conversation between him and critic Shawn Lonsdale. Despite the lobbying of British MPs by the Church of Scientology for the documentary to be scrapped, airing of Scientology and Me went ahead on May 14. The episode garnered the highest ratings for Panorama since September of the previous year, with a peak of 4.9 million viewers in the UK.
The scale of the controversy intensified when the Church of Scientology released a 40 second clip of video footage showing the segment of a screaming argument between John Sweeney and Scientologist Tommy Davis at the Psychiatry: An Industry of Death museum, regarding Sweeney's use of the word "cult" to describe the Church of Scientology.[2] In the argument, Sweeney yelled "You were not there at the beginning of the interview! You were not there! You did not hear or record all the interview!". The interview that Sweeney is referring to is the conversation between him and critic Shawn Lonsdale. Despite the lobbying of British MPs by the Church of Scientology for the documentary to be scrapped, airing of Scientology and Me went ahead on May 14. The episode garnered the highest ratings for Panorama since September of the previous year, with a peak of 4.9 million viewers in the UK.