Bowie Doc, Five Years, To Be Premiered By Beeb

The BBC has confirmed they are set to air a feature-length film about David Bowie. The documentary, which is due to broadcast this May, will focus on five key individual years that shaped his career.

The film will look at Bowie in 1971, on the road to Hunky Dory, then skips to 1975 – the crucible year of Bowie’s alienated Thin White Duke persona. 1977 sees Bowie in Berlin, with Eno, Iggy et al; then 1980 chronicles the making of Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) and Bowie’s entente with the New Romantics. The last of the Five Years is 1983 – coinciding with the megastar breakthrough of Let’s Dance – and an epilogue catches up with his surprise return, 30 years later, with forthcoming LP The Next Day.

Whilst there is hardly a shortage of Bowie retrospectives out there in the ether, this will be the first to look at the enigmatic singer’s return, and is purportedly rammed with unseen studio footage and interviews with his closest friends and colleagues.

Director Francis Whately, who previously worked as a director on the BBC’s Seven Ages Of Rock series, has said the project has been in the pipeline for over a decade, since he and Bowie first worked together on a BBC Omnibus back in 2001.

David Bowie: Five Years will broadcast this May on BBC Two.

And if that wasn’t enough Bowie for you, check out Beck covering Sound And Vision with a 160-strong orchestra for the new Lincoln cars ad campaign.