One evening in 1981, the popular BBC1 programme Nationwide broadcast an interview with one of the most loved musical parterships of the time: The Carpenters, a squeaky-clean duo, comprising the velvet-voiced singer Karen and her brother Richard.
They were interviewed by Sue Lawley, and fans no doubt expected to hear about new record releases and concerts that the American pair had planned. Instead, viewers saw a painfully thin, gaunt and fragile-looking Karen sitting on a sofa – her huge, brown