Delayed BBC Ozzy Osbourne ‘Coming Home’ Documentary on Final Years Rescheduled

The BBC has announced the new broadcast date for an Ozzy Osbourne documentary that was pulled from its schedule at the last minute in August due to the family’s request. According to an update posted on Wednesday (Sept. 17), the one-hour movie Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home — originally slated to air on Aug. 18 — will now screen on BBC One and iPlayer on Oct. 2.

The film covering the final few years of the rock icon’s life was pulled from the network’s schedule just hours before it was slated to screen, with the network saying that the move came in an effort at “respecting the family’s wishes to wait a bit longer before airing this very special film.”

The initial air date would have been less than a month after Osbourne died at age 76 on July 22, just two weeks after performing his final show at his home soccer stadium, Villa Park, in Birmingham, England as part of the all-star Back to the Beginning tribute show.

The movie will cover the final three years of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s life as he and wife/manager Sharon Osbourne moved back to their native U.K. after years of living in Los Angeles, as well as his “heroic” fight to overcome a series of medical issues to return to the stage for the July 5 show in Ozzy’s native Birmingham.

An updated description of the “intimate” doc says it will provide a “candid and moving portrait of one of Birmingham’s favorite songs, and the remarkable relationship with Sharon as the couple faced a “monumental battle, both on a professional and personal level” to overcome the effects of Parkinson’s disease on the heavy metal icon, as well as the aftermath of a difficult spinal surgery.

“Pulling off either the move or the gig will be a phenomenal achievement, and son Jack is worried about the toll of relocating to a country that his parents have barely spent time in over the last two decades, as well as the impact on such close-knit family dynamics,” reads the description. “But Ozzy has never been a man to take no for an answer, and with Sharon’s support he sets about achieving his goals with the determination, blistering honesty and razor-sharp sense of humor that have endeared him to millions for over 50 years. He will stop at nothing to make his body work as well as it used to, with the film capturing remarkable levels of resolve.”

The BBC doc will hit screen just five days before another emotional doc covering Ozzy’s final years, Ozzy: No Escape From Now, which will follow the rocker in the six years before his death. That movie, directed by BAFTA Award-winner Tania Alexander will premiere on Paramount+ on Oct. 7 in the U.S. and internationally (excluding Japan). The project produced in collaboration with the Osbourne family, will feature Sharon, as well as their children, Aimee, Jack and Kelly, describing the devastating effects of a late-night fall Ozzy suffered in Feb. 2019 that led to the cancellation of his planned two-and-a-half-year farewell tour.

In addition to the Osbourne family, No Escape From Now will feature interviews with Ozzy’s Sabbath and solo band members guitarists Tony Iommi and Zakk Wylde, as well as the Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, Rage Agains the Machine’s Tom Morello, Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan, Metallica singer/guitarist James Hetfield and bassist Robert Trujillo, Billy Idol, Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan, Tool’s Maynard James Keenan and many others.