broadcast: Saturday 16 March 2013
For more than four decades, David Bowie has entranced his followers. As he releases his
first new material in ten years, Samira Ahmed looks at his particular appeal for British Asian women.
Across the generations, they have been inspired by the skinny South Londoner who challenged gender
barriers and who played with alien identity and other worldliness. Beneath the make up
and exotic costumes, he was also the intelligent, politely spoken suburban young man who you
could potentially introduce to your mother.
As Samira explores Bowie's impact on British Asian teenagers, she talks to Shami Chakrabarti,
the Director of 'Liberty', about Bowie's changing identities. Sociologist Rupa Huq tackles his
suburban psychoses and Shyama Perera takes Samira on a journey to explain how her teenage
obsession with Bowie even extended to sending costume designs to her hero - enabling her
arguably to claim that "I Dressed Ziggy Stardust".
Presenter: Samira Ahmed