With the first anniversary of David Bowie's death on the horizon, the past year has seen something of a cultural consensus that his last output, Blackstar, was intended to be a very poignant farewell from the musician to his fans.

Or perhaps not, with BBC 2's new documentary David Bowie: The Last Five Years, which aired 7 January, revealing the legendary musician only discovered his cancer was terminal three months before his death.

Indeed, Bowie only discovered his treatment was to be stopped during the filming of the music video for his final single, 'Lazarus'; with the video's concept, seeing Bowie sing lines such as 'Look up here, I’m in heaven' from a hospital bed, actually conceived by the video's director Johan Renck.

Renck told The Guardian: “David said: ‘I just want to make it a simple performance video'. I immediately said, 'the song is called 'Lazarus', you should be in the bed.' To me it had to do with the biblical aspect of it... it had nothing to do with him being ill. I found out later that, the week we were shooting, it was when he was told it was over, they were ending treatments and that his illness had won.”

Even then, Bowie hadn't given up hope of recovery and was still keen to create new music, with the director of Bowie's musical Lazarus, Ivo Van Hoe, revealing: “I really am convinced that he was fighting death and he wanted to continue and continue. Afterwards we were sitting behind stage and he said ‘let’s start a second one now, the sequel to Lazarus.”

David Bowie: The Last Five Years was directed by Francis Whately, acting as a continuation of his previous 2013 documentary David Bowie: Five Years, which focused on five of the most creatively significant years in the musician's life between 1971 and 1983.

David Bowie: Life in pictures Show all 30 1 /30 David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie in 1960s Dezo Hoffman/Shutterstock David Bowie: Life in pictures Davy Jones; life before David Bowie Getty David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie in 1964 Dezo Hoffman/Shutterstock David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie 'In Mime' at the Middle Earth Club, London, 1968 Ray Stevenson/Shutterstock David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie in 1969 I T N/Shutterstock David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie performing his final concert as Ziggy Stardust at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, 1973 Getty David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie in 1973 PA David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie, with his wife Angela (Angie) and his son Zowie, after receiving an award for his latest record "Ziggy stardust" in Amsterdam, 1974 AFP David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie in the 1970s Sunshine/Shutterstock David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie poses with a pig David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie's son, Duncan Jones, confirmed his death on Twitter Duncan Jones/Twitter David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie in the 1980s Everett Collection/Rex David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie gives a press conference presenting the Japanese movie 'Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence' directed by Nagisa Oshima, during the 36th International Film Festival in Cannes, 1983 AFP via Getty David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie performs on stage during a concert in La Courneuve, 1987 AFP David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie during his concert in West Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany, 1987 EPA David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie shakes hands with Princess Diana, 1993 PA David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie autographs copies of his newest album 'Outside' at the grand opening of a Herald Square music store 26 September 1995 in New York AFP/Getty David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie performs at the Panathinaikos stadium in Athens during a rock festival, 1996 Reuters David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie and his wife, supermodel Iman smile as they pose for photos after Bowie received a star on the world famous Walk of Fame 12 February in Hollywood, 1997 Getty David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie getting ready to perform 'Earthling' at the Phoenix Music Festival in 1997 Pat Pope/Shutterstock David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie on stage performing during the Tibet House Benefit Concert in New York City, 2001 Getty David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie Meltdown concert at the Royal Festival Hall, London, June 2002 Rex David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie performing during his concert at the Stravinski hall stage of the Montreux Jazz Festival, in Montreux, Switzerland, 2002 EPA David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie in 'Last Call with Carson Daly' TV programme taping in New York, 2003 Startraks/Shutterstock David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie walks with his with wife Iman and daughter Alexandria (2) in New York, 2003 Shutterstock David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie performs on stage on the third and final day of 'The Nokia Isle of Wight Festival 2004' at Seaclose Park, in Newport, UK Getty David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie and Kate Moss at the 2005 CFDA Awards dinner party at the New York Public Library in New York City, 2005 Getty David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie and model Iman arrive to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala, Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy, held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, 2008 Getty David Bowie: Life in pictures David Bowie anf Tilda Swinton at the MoMA's 6th Annual Film Benefit in New York, 2013 BFANYC.COM/Rex David Bowie: Life in pictures Flowers are left below a mural of David Bowie on the wall of a Morley's store in Brixton on 11 January 2016 Getty



“I still don’t know if he started making Blackstar before he knew he was ill, or after,” Whately said. ”People are so desperate for Blackstar to be this parting gift that Bowie made for the world when he knew he was dying but I think it’s simplistic to think that. There is more ambiguity there than people want to acknowledge. I don’t think he knew he was going to die.”

“However, he must have known there was a chance he wasn’t going to recover, so, to do an album with a certain amount of ambiguity in it, is Bowie playing the cat and mouse game that he always played.”

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