David Bowie and the fame game

According to British documentary-maker Francis Whately, the musician David Bowie, ‘‘is possibly now even more famous in death than in life’’.

To reinforce the point, Whately has made his third documentary about the British music star, who died in January 2016 at the age of 69.

Following on from the acclaimed David Bowie: Five Years (2013) and David Bowie: The Last Five Years (2017), David Bowie – Finding Fame delves into the Bowie before Ziggy Stardust. The programme, which screens in New Zealand this week, explores the pre-fame period when so many of the ideas were born that would propel him to global fame.

David Bowie – Finding Fame begins in 1966, just after the musician had changed his name from David Jones. The documentary charts the start of the artist’s astonishing capacity for reinvention.

It demonstrates Bowie’s interest in everything from Holst to Pinky and Perky, from Anthony Newley to Tibetan Buddhism. It also examines how he marshalled all these influences to dream up not only Ziggy, but also the material for his whole career.

As Bowie himself puts it, ‘‘I spent all my formative years adopting guises and changing roles, just learning to be somebody. I wanted to be accepted as David Bowie – a person that you will always watch to see what kind of thing he is doing.’’

David Bowie – Finding Fame includes interviews with Bowie’s first cousin and lifelong-friend Kristina Amadeus, his former girlfriends and muses Hermione Farthingale and Dana Gillespie, the choreographer Lindsay Kemp (in his last filmed interview), Bowie’s producers, Tony Visconti, Mike Vernon and Tony Hatch, his lifelong friends Geoff MacCormak and George Underwood, and Woody Woodmansey, the last surviving Spider from Mars.

The film also features a coup: Bowie’s first TV performance as Ziggy.

This appearance from June 1972 on ITV’s Lift Off With Ayshea was believed to have been lost forever. Recorded by

a viewer and discovered on old computer tape, this lovingly restored footage is, says Whately, ‘‘something of a Holy Grail for fans’’.

Another fascinating aspect of the film is that it discloses that in November 1965, the BBC’s Talent Selection Group rejected a beat group called David Bowie and the Lower Third because its singer was ‘‘devoid of personality’’. They continued that his sound was ‘‘not particularly exciting’’ and ‘‘will not improve with practise’’.

Whately had a long professional relationship with Bowie after first making a film with him about sculpture in 1998. He was hugely honoured to have been invited to produce these three documentaries.

‘‘Making this trilogy has been an incredible experience for me,’’ he says. ‘‘Unearthing rare recordings, footage and archive, and the privilege of speaking to so many of his friends and collaborators who were so open in talking about the Bowie they knew, loved and admired so much.’’

Whately says Bowie’s work has constant themes. ‘‘Spirituality, alienation, and fame was a big one for him, too. His attitude towards it was so interesting – how he hungered for it in the beginning, but then found it quite tiresome. So on a song like The Stars (Are Out Tonight), from The Next Day, he talks about how absurd fame is, despite having desired it at one time. It was an interesting essay on what fame means in the 21st century.’’

Viewing this documentary, we are reminded why Bowie is regarded as perhaps the most important pop artist of the past century. His work still has a capacity to wow.

Seeing Ziggy on TV in 1972 had a big effect on The Fall’s Marc Riley.

‘‘I was absolutely gobsmacked,’’ he says. ‘‘My gran was shouting insults at the TV, which she usually saved for Labour Party political broadcasts. I was experiencing a life-changing moment. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it really did knock me for six.’’

– James Rampton, TV Guide David Bowie – Finding Fame, 8.35pm, Prime, tonight.