David Bowie didn't know he was dying until the final months
A new documentary has revealed that David Bowie only discovered his cancer was terminal three months before his death.
Set to air this weekend, David Bowie: The Last Five Years reveals that the music legend was told by doctors his cancer treatment was to be stopped while he was making the video for the single ‘Lazarus’.
John Renck, the director of the ‘Lazarus’ video, says in the film: "I found out later that the week we were shooting is when he found out that it is over... We'll end treatment or whatever capacity that means, that his illness has won."
Despite suggestions that the bandages and buttons over Bowie’s eyes in the video were a nod towards his incurable illness, Renck rubbishes these claims.
He explains: "To me it had to do with the biblical aspect of it, you know the man who would rise again, and it had nothing to do with him being ill. That was only because I liked the imagery of it."
Elsewhere in the documentary, Bowie’s long-term producer Tony Visconti reflected upon Bowie’s ambition to be a star.
"David had great, grand ideas,” Visconti said. “To become well known, famous, for him was initially to have the resources to realise what his ideas were.
"He really does come from that spirit, he just didn't want to be famous per se."
Following Bowie on his final 2003-2004 Reality tour and the last four years of his life, the Francis Whately directed film David Bowie: The Last Five Years is shown on Saturday 7th January at 9pm on BBC Two.