documentaries

A New David Bowie Documentary on His Final Years Is Coming to the BBC

Photo of David BOWIE
Mark your calendars. Photo: Ian Dickson/Redferns/Getty Images

Once again the BBC will explore David Bowie’s life in five-year increments, but this time focusing on the final period of his prolific career. Next January, one year after Bowie’s death, BBC Two is set to air David Bowie: The Last Five Years, the sequel to Francis Whately’s 2013 documentary David Bowie: Five Years. It’ll follow the making of Bowie’s last two albums, The Next Day and Blackstar, as well as his musical Lazarus. As with the first, the doc will include unreleased archival footage and interviews with Bowie, his original vocal recording for the song “Lazarus,†plus an interview with his longtime producer Tony Visconti. “He would stand in front of the mic and for the four or five minutes he was singing he would pour his heart out,†Visconti remembers in the trailer, which U.K. viewers can watch over here. In honor of the one-year anniversary of Bowie’s death and what would’ve been his 70th birthday on January 8, this doc will be part of a whole BBC season dedicated to Bowie, which will include BBC Four’s Bowie at the BBC, a 40-year retrospective of Bowie’s history with the BBC, and a documentary about “Life on Mars.â€

New David Bowie Documentary Coming to the BBC