Saturday TV Choice: ​Milli Vanilli (BBC Two, 10.05pm)

​But let’s go back to the very beginning of the story, when Rob Pilatus from Munich first met Fab Morvan from Paris in an LA disco. They got on well and, after reconnecting in Pilatus’s home city, they bonded over their shared experiences of growing up black in predominantly white European places and, thanks to a shared love of music, set out to become backing singers.

However, they ended up recording an album for a small German label; it flopped leaving them short of cash, so when producer Frank Farian, the founder of Boney M, offered them a contract, the duo were happy to sign up. Although they looked good, Farian wasn’t impressed with their voices, so brought in various studio singers to record the proposed songs instead.

The world, however, thought that Pilatus and Morvan were the performers, with Milli Vanilli selling around 30 million records worldwide and even winning the Best New Artist award at the Grammys in 1990, but the end was nigh.

Tired of receiving no credit, Charles Shaw revealed he was one of three singers to have recorded the vocals on Milli Vanilli’s hits, and Farian was forced to reveal the truth.

Now, 35 years on, the whole sorry saga is discussed in detail during a feature-length documentary directed by Luke Korem, whose previous projects include Dealt, an acclaimed insight into the life and career of blind card magician Richard Turner.

Sadly, two people caught in the centre of the storm in the early 1990s – Farian and Pilatus – are no longer around to tell their side of the story. Farian passed away last year at the age of 82, while Pilatus was found dead in 1998 from an accidental alcohol and prescription drug overdose in a hotel near Frankfurt shortly before he and Morvan were due to relaunch their careers via a tour and a new album, on which they had indeed performed the vocals.

Pilatus had, in fact, been struggling for some time. He spent three months in prison for assault, vandalism and attempted robbery in 1996, with Farian paying for a six-month stay in drug rehabilitation.

Both Pilatus and Farian can be seen in archive interviews, interspersed with new material from Morvan, Shaw and, among others, Ingrid ‘Milli’ Segieth, Farian’s former assistant whose nickname inspired the name of the band.

Korem focuses on the duo’s pre-fame years, exploring their determination to be successful, as well as the public condemnation they had to deal with when the truth came to light – something that Farian and his fellow executives didn’t have to face. It’s a cautionary tale, one that reveals how ruthless the showbiz world can be, and one that only the toughest survive unscathed.