New BBC documentary to feature never-before-seen footage of David Bowie

A new BBC documentary following the final stages of David Bowie’s life is set to be released in 2017 and will feature never-before-seen footage of the iconic artist.

Titled David Bowie: The Last Five Years, the feature will detail the process of producing Bowie’s last two albums, ‘The Next Day’ and ‘Blackstar’, while also showcasing the direction of his Lazarus stage musical. Through new interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, viewers will be immersed in the critical moments of his life before he passed away in January 2016.

Among the content exclusive to the documentary is Bowie’s final recording, an a cappella performance for Lazarus, along with the musician’s first encounter with the the jazz quartet featured on Blackstar at Bar 55 in NYC.

The upcoming documentary serves as producer and director Francis Whately’s follow-up to David Bowie: Five Years, which aired in 2013. He always hoped to deliver another piece on Bowie and this new film revealed a new side of the legendary figure: “Looking at Bowie’s extraordinary creativity during the last five years of his life has allowed me to re-examine his life’s work and move beyond the simplistic view that his career was simply predicated on change – Bowie the chameleon.”

To coincide with the new documentary, BBC will also air Bowie at the BBC, delivering a look at Bowie's history with the network through archive footage, from his first appearance in 1964 all the way up to his death.