A new BBC documentary reveals that David Bowie only learned his cancer was terminal three months before his death, challenging assumptions that his final works were deliberate farewells. The film, David Bowie: The Last Five Years, airs on BBC2 on Saturday, a day before what would have been the singer's 70th birthday.
Director Johan Renck, who helmed the video for Bowie's final single 'Lazarus', said the singer conceived the hospital-bed concept a week before receiving the devastating news that treatment was being stopped. 'I immediately said the song is called Lazarus, you should be in the bed,' Renck recalled. 'To me it had to do with the biblical aspect... it had nothing to do with him being ill.' He only later learned that the shoot coincided with Bowie being told his illness had won.
Despite his failing health, Bowie remained determined to create. Ivo Van Hove, director of Bowie's musical Lazarus, described a backstage conversation after the play's 2015 New York debut: 'He got through the night. I really am convinced that he was fighting death... Afterwards he said 'let's start a second one now, the sequel to Lazarus'.'
Documentarian Francis Whately, who also made the earlier BBC film David Bowie: Five Years, noted the singer's extraordinary workload during his final period. 'Often he would go and record in the studio and then go and watch the rehearsals for Lazarus in the evening,' Whately said. 'It was quite an extraordinary workload.'
Bowie died on 10 January 2016, two days after his 69th birthday and the release of his 25th studio album Blackstar. He had kept his illness secret from all but his closest circle and essential collaborators, including producer Tony Visconti and Lazarus producer Robert Fox, who both appear in the documentary.
