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"When we celebrated David Bowie&amp;#039;s 65th birthday last year, we never would have dreamt of what would happen 12 months on. Back from the (as good as) dead, DB returned with The Next Day and we&amp;#039;re only just getting over the shock. To celebrate his unexpected comeback, BBC Two presents a brand-new documentary about our greatest popstar, and having had a sneak preview, Digital Spy gives you five compelling reasons to watch Five Years.  &amp;gt; Ten Things About... David Bowie 1. Golden Years The structure of Five Years makes it a lot more interesting than your usual pop doc. Rather than try (and fail) to talk about 50 years of pop superstardom in two hours, the film gives us five year-long snapshots. Year One: 1971-1972 (Hunky Dory to ...Ziggy Stardust), Year Two: 1974-1975 (Young Americans to Station to Station), Year Three: 1976-1977 (Low to &amp;quot;Heroes&amp;quot;), Year Four: 1979-1980 (Scary Monsters... And Super Creeps) and Year Five: 1982-1983 (Let&amp;#039;s Dance). We&amp;#039;d have quite liked a later year chucked in there - 1989 (Tin Machine) or 1995 (1. Outside), but director Francis Whately has probably been sensible in opting for Bowie&amp;#039;s most famous phases. Things are brought up to speed briefly at the end with a snippet of what we could call The Next Year. 2. Sound and Vision Some of this footage is pretty rare - some of it is unseen - a lot of it is remarkable. The Kenny Everett Show video performance of &amp;#039;Space Oddity&amp;#039;. Bowie and his soul train - including a babyfaced Luther Vandross - working out Young Americans arrangements in the studio. Absurd talkshow appearances on Dick Cavett and Russell Harty. Bowie on Broadway doing The Elephant Man. This isn&amp;#039;t just the same old collection of pop video snippets and Bowie doing &amp;#039;Starman&amp;#039; on Top of the Pops, but a treasure trove of fantastic clips neatly deployed. 3. All the (not so) Young Dudes In truth, we could do without the trad talking head footage shot in attics and warehouses from hacks and cultural commentators - John Harris, Camille Paglia, Charles Shaar Murray and the rest. But their flowery pronouncements (&amp;quot;&amp;#039;Life on Mars?&amp;#039; is magical realism really&amp;quot;) are more than outweighed by the to-the-point talk from oodles of the people that were actually part of the story. Collaborators, producers, friends, co-stars and directors ranging from Rick Wakeman and Candy Clark to Ava Cherry and late Spider from Mars Trevor Bolder fill in the flesh behind the fa\u00E7ade with their recollections. 4. Rock &amp;#039;n&amp;#039; Roll with Me Where marvellous V&amp;amp;A exhibition David Bowie is... painted DB as a singular force in popular culture, Five Years recasts him as the ultimate collaborator. It takes in all of Bowie&amp;#039;s changes mainly through the words and music of his catalysts and cohorts. Watching Carlos Alomar building up &amp;#039;Fame&amp;#039; in guitar layers with himself as a split screen is a complete pleasure, as is Rick Wakemen tinkling on the ivories, muso-ing on through &amp;#039;Life on Mars?&amp;#039; (&amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s a piano player&amp;#039;s joy... in fact I must go home and learn it&amp;quot;). The (archive?) audio snippets from the man himself are suitably generous to his teammates, and - refreshingly - so is this film. 5. Robert Fripp Of all the guys and girls we hear from, The Elephant Man director Jack Hofsiss and Carlos Alomar (&amp;quot;This was the whitest man I&amp;#039;d ever seen!&amp;quot;) certainly deserve special mention, but the complete standout is King Crimson&amp;#039;s Robert Fripp. There&amp;#039;s nothing quite like a guitar legend who looks (and sounds) like a retired bank manager, calmly swearing as he recalls Bowie and Brian Eno asking him to play some &amp;quot;hairy rock &amp;#039;n&amp;#039; roll&amp;quot; on &amp;quot;Heroes&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;What is the difference between pop and rock and roll?&amp;quot; Fripp says gently. &amp;quot;You might get f**ked.&amp;quot; Blimey! David Bowie - Five Years airs this Saturday, May 25 at 9.20pm on BBC Two. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/news/a484296/david-bowie-five-years-five-reasons-you-have-to-watch-it/>