The programme gained particular controversy before and during filming due to unresolved differences on content and approach between Sweeney's production team and Scientology members.

With a peak of 4.9 million viewers in the UK, the episode garnered the highest ratings for Panorama since September the previous year.

He begins with an edited version of a statement issued during the 1994 Los Angeles Superior Court case Church of Scientology of California vs Gerald Armstrong, in which Judge John Breckenridge describes the Church of Scientology as "[s]chizophrenic, bizarre, ... paranoid[;] ... an organization that harasses its enemies ... and abuses the trust of its members.

"[15] The BBC responded to the clip by releasing on its website the video Sweeney shot to give some context to the argument before the documentary was aired.

Sweeney's outburst toward Tommy Davis prompted John Travolta to lobby British MPs in an attempt to stop the documentary from being aired.

[18][19] Sweeney stated that it was a by-product of the "hijacking of the Holocaust" by the Scientology exhibition Psychiatry: An Industry of Death – which was where the outburst occurred – as well as attempts to control his mind.

At the time the Church of Scientology posted its own material regarding the matter on the Internet, one of its spokesmen denied Sweeney's statement regarding a quick apology.

[4] Sweeney said of fair gaming: "While making our BBC Panorama film Scientology and Me I have been shouted at, spied on, had my hotel invaded at midnight, denounced as a 'bigot' by star Scientologists and been chased round the streets of Los Angeles by sinister strangers."

Sweeney also claimed that his family and neighbours had been harassed by unidentified strangers back in the UK, including an intruder at his wedding who fled when confronted.