BBC says Ozzy Osbourne documentary was delayed to respect ‘family’s wishes’

The BBC has said it delayed airing a new documentary about late Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne in order to respect his “family’s wishes”.

Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home was due to be shown on BBC One at 9pm on Monday but was replaced with an episode of Fake Or Fortune? with the broadcaster saying the documentary had been “moved in the schedules”.

In a statement on Tuesday, a BBC spokesperson said: “Our sympathies are with the Osbourne family at this difficult time. We are respecting the family’s wishes to wait a bit longer before airing this very special film.

“The new TX (transmission) date will be confirmed shortly.”

The hour-long documentary will show the late singer reuniting with the band on stage as part of the Back To The Beginning farewell concert in Birmingham, which he died just weeks later, aged 76, on July 22 from a reported heart attack.

The film was originally conceived as a series, announced in 2022 and called Home To Roost, and was to document Osbourne and his wife Sharon’s move back from the US, where they had lived for more than two decades, to rural Buckinghamshire.

But the project “evolved as Ozzy’s health deteriorated” into the one-hour film, the BBC said.

The documentary sees the story of the concert told through “unique and intimate access to the whole Osbourne family”, including Sharon, and their children Kelly and Jack.

It was filmed over three years and “captures the extraordinary rollercoaster of their lives” as the famous couple “attempt to complete their long-held dream of moving back to the UK”, the BBC has said.

Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home also captures the musician as he “heroically battles to get fit enough to perform” and the family dealing with “the dramatic consequences of his ill health”, with Kelly quoted as saying in the film: “Iron Man wasn’t really made of iron.”

The rocker had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2019.

Last month, fans gathered alongside Osbourne’s family to pay tribute to the star as a funeral cortege travelled through Birmingham.

Sharon and the couple’s children could be seen wiping away tears when they arrived at the Black Sabbath bench, where thousands of tributes, balloons and flowers were left.

Musicians from Bostin Brass played Black Sabbath songs to accompany the cortege, and fans threw flowers at the hearse as it passed slowly through the city.