The Final Take: Bowie in the Studio
A dramatised account of David Bowie working on his last album, Blackstar.
** For rights reasons, this programme is no longer available.
This special drama is an imagined account of David Bowie as he works on his last album, Blackstar, to give a moving and revealing portrait of the star as he reflects on music, love, drugs, fame and death.
Impressionist Jon Culshaw, in a rare serious role, plays David Bowie. It is 2015, and music star David Bowie is secretly working in New York’s The Magic Shop studio, with his long-time producer Tony Visconti. The resulting tracks will become David Bowie's final album, Blackstar, which was released in January 2016, just two days before his death. The dialogue in this drama is partly constructed from Bowie’s own words, taken from the many hundreds of interviews he gave since the 1960s.
(Photo: Jon Culshaw, who plays David Bowie in The Final Take Credit: BBC)
Last on
More episodes
![]()
Jon Culshaw on playing Bowie
The impressionist on his 'portrait of the artist'
Clips
-
![]()
What made David Bowie create all his characters?
Duration: 01:26
-
![]()
What did the first rush of fame feel like for David Bowie?
Duration: 01:35
The Cast
Martin T Sherman: Tony Visconti
Tom Alexander: Donny McCaslin.
Incidental music was by Chris O’Shaughnessy and Sandra Mae Luykx.
Writer: David Morley
Director: Dirk Maggs.
Ten things writer David Morley discovered about David Bowie while writing The Final Take
1 He liked isolation.
2 He was afraid of becoming mentally ill, like members of his family.
3 He lived longer in New York than in London.
4 He told the BBC that he considered himself a recovering alcoholic.
5 He made $55 million from “Bowie Bonds” - an innovative way to exploit his back catalogue.
6 He met producer Tony Visconti back in 1967.
7 He lived in Berlin with Iggy Pop in 1977, where he got about by bike.
8 He liked to wear slippers in the studio.
9 He invented Ziggy Stardust and other stage personas because he lacked confidence in his singing voice.
10 He was working on new tracks after he recorded his last album, Blackstar.
Broadcasts
- Tue 30 Jan 2018 00:32GMTBBC World Service East and Southern Africa, South Asia, West and Central Africa & East Asia only
- Tue 30 Jan 2018 03:32GMTBBC World Service Online, Americas and the Caribbean, UK DAB/Freeview & Europe and the Middle East only
- Tue 30 Jan 2018 04:32GMTBBC World Service South Asia & East Asia only
- Tue 30 Jan 2018 05:32GMTBBC World Service Australasia
- Tue 30 Jan 2018 11:32GMTBBC World Service except News Internet
- Tue 30 Jan 2018 21:32GMTBBC World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Tue 30 Jan 2018 23:32GMTBBC World Service Australasia, Online, UK DAB/Freeview, Americas and the Caribbean & Europe and the Middle East only
Six decades of Bowie
How Bowie constantly re-invented his sound and persona
David Bowie: A Life in Pictures
Snapshot on a career spanning decades
The Making of Blackstar
Mary Anne Hobbs speaks to Jon Culshaw about playing David Bowie in The Final Take
Download the podcast
Follow our journeys with some of the most creative minds on the planet
