Screaming fans are irritating but this programme suggests we owe some spectacular musical greatness to their annoying antics.

When you go to see your favourite band you don't want them drowned out by shrieking, urinating teenagers, but that's what happened at Beatles gigs, and it began to annoy the Fab Four. They wouldn't have had to mop up the sweat, tears and urine, but they were certainly miffed that their music was being drowned out. A grumpy Paul McCartney complained that the constant howl at Beatles concerts was making it impossible for the group to perform. What was the point, the baby-faced Scouser asked, if their music was imperceptible? And it was damaging the group's talent as they had no way of knowing how they sounded, and if they were improving or declining. All they could hear was screaming girls.

And so The Beatles stopped touring, because there was simply no point in standing in front of a delirious crowd and trying to play; they could have mimed the whole thing, and occasionally swiped at a guitar or patted at a drum, and those hysterical fans would've been none the wiser. The group retreated into the studio instead, where they were free, in the blissful silence of those sound-proofed rooms, to experiment with their music, and they managed to create things like Sergeant Pepper. Would that strange album have been able to spring from a band devoted to bouncing around on a stage in front of hysterical girls?

But the programme tells us they weren't just 'hysterical girls' but 'fans', and that word comes from the Latin 'fanaticus', meaning madness and inspiration. So, on the surface, they may seem daft and irritating, but they were being driven half-mad by a total devotion to the band, and this programme, When Pop Ruled My Life (BBC4) is a tribute to those crazy fans, and looks at pop music from their sweaty, swooning perspective.

This is an affectionate look at the different types of fans who've followed pop music, from the fainting Beatles fanatics, to the fashionable Mods to the rise of Prog Rock which allowed men to be fans, ie. men who were glad to see music 'coming out of the screaming era', according to Rick Wakeman. But screaming wasn't done with, as The Bay City Rollers showed, with their hysterical fans with tartan scarves tied round their wrists, and then came the 80s New Romantics who brought it back to fashion and poise.

Of course, the current true fanatics belong to the band One Direction, and we see how they use the internet to connect with one another and feed their obsession, with some writing 'fan fiction' where they create delirious fantasy worlds involving the singers. 'Reality has left the building,' remarks Mossman.

Running alongside the general story of the pop fanatic is the presenter, Kate Mossman's, own obsession with Queen, and this brings a melancholy touch to the documentary which ends with her standing on the empty street outside Freddie Mercury's old home which has been stripped of all the posters, notes and flowers. With its connection to youth, memory and passion there's no doubt that being a fan isn't about music or make-up, but about 'a return to the best part of yourself'.