Rolling Stone Keith Richards will swap concert arenas for the streets of Kent for a new BBC documentary about growing up in post-war Britain.
The guitarist will journey back to his formative years in the hour-long film Keith Richards – The Origin Of The Species, directed by punk film-maker Julien Temple for BBC Two.
Keith in the new doc (Jane Rose/BBC)
The documentary will be the centrepiece of the broadcaster’s year-long My Generation season charting the history of pop music across the decades, and will air in July.
Keith will also curate a weekend of films and live performances for BBC Four in September.
Keith Richards’ Lost Weekend will feature an introduction by the rocker – filmed by Temple – talking about his selections and inspirations.
Keith with the rest of the Stones (Ian West/PA)
Julien’s documentary will show Keith “reclaiming for the first time on film his suburban roots” and “explore the impact he has had on how we all live our lives today”, according to the BBC.
Keith, from Dartford, says in the documentary: “There was a feeling late ’50s/early ’60s that there was a change coming.
Keith performs at the O2 Arena (Yui Mok/PA)
“Harold Macmillan actually said it – ‘The winds of change’ and all that – but he didn’t mean it in quite the same way. I certainly felt that my generation and what was happening and the feeling in the air was it’s time to push limits. The world is ours now and you can rise or fall on it.”
The film details how Richards narrowly avoided being killed by a bomb in the Second World War, when his cot was sprayed with bricks and mortar before he could walk or talk.
Julien Temple (Chris Radburn/PA)
Julien, who has previously made a concert film with the Stones and directed David Bowie film Absolute Beginners as well as music videos for Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson and Luther Vandross, said: “Listening to the early Stones as a kid changed everything for me. I felt a new way of living emerging, a new kind of person becoming possible – something I wanted to be a part of.
“And without a doubt I thought Keith Richards was the origin of the species. This film sets out to explore how both he and the ’60s in England came about.”
The film will cover rationing, austerity, the beginning of the National Health Service and the end of National Service, ending at the point the Rolling Stones began.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article