David Bowie: The Final Act; Waiting for the Out

“If the Glasto show is lingered on – a few too many people are handed an iPad playing the footage, so they can mist up as they rewatch – the indulgence comes from a place of deep affection, and it sets us up to accept that the 2000 triumph began a journey towards Bowie accepting himself that Blackstar completed. That final record is still such a delicate, moving message from the edge of heaven, even more so with the benefit of the insights here from musicians who so carefully worked on it. Ten years on, the loss still stings, but this film brings Bowie a little closer.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“These moments offer glimpses of the sensitive artist behind the imperious Thin White Duke. But there isn’t enough of this, and too much rock doc cliché – Bowie with the best hair in pop during his Young Americans phase, a smug, tanned Bowie basking in the success of Let’s Dance in 1983. Factor in an uneven tone that leaps from TV presenter Jayne Middlemiss chattily reminiscing about Glastonbury to astronaut Chris Hadfield banging on about black holes, and The Final Act adds up to an unsatisfying valentine to one of pop’s great mavericks.”
Ed Power, The Telegraph

“I always get a slight cringe when the title of a drama is spoken out loud by a character, as happened twice here when prisoners said they were “waiting for the out”. But this is the tiniest quibble in a beautifully understated, unshouty but profound series that digs deeper into the realities of prison and educates the audience about how, say, a small bureaucratic blunder by the authorities can affect the life of an inmate and his family. And about what being “free” really means.”
Carol Midgley, The Times