BBC to commemorate 30th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death with documentary

Thirty years after the suicide death of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, the BBC will air a documentary it says will “demystify” the grunge music legend.

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“Moments That Shook the Music: Kurt Cobain” will air on April 13, according to the BBC. The feature-length documentary will be part of the news organization’s programming dedicated to Cobain, who died on April 5, 1994. Cobain’s body was found three days later after electrician Gary Smith called 911, reporting he had found a lifeless body at Cobain’s mansion in Seattle.

Cobain was 27.

BBC Two and iPlayer will air the show, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The documentary will utilize rare archive footage of “a visceral account of the days that surrounded that tragic moment in 1994 when Cobain took his own life,” the entertainment news website reported.

BBC Two will also air “When Nirvana Came To Britain,” which was first broadcast in 2021, according to the BBC. It will also broadcast “Foo Fighters at Reading 2019,” featuring that band’s frontman and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl.

“Kurt Cobain’s life and death has turned into myth and legend since his passing,” Jonathan Rothery, head of BBC Popular Music TV, told the BBC. “This documentary tries to demystify that moment in time by telling the story direct from the scene, via fly-on-the-wall footage filmed by those that were there.”

The documentary features Smith’s reaction when he discovered Cobain’s body while installing a security system in a nearby mansion, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It delves into the police reports and the objects found at the scene, including the shotgun Cobain allegedly used to shoot himself.

Touchdown Films founder John Osborne, who produced and directed the film, said his company was “incredibly proud” to work with the BBC on the documentary.

“We are incredibly proud to be working with the BBC on this film, who share in our vision of using only archive to take viewers back to 1994; to immerse themselves in this seismic story,” Osborne told the BBC. “Kurt Cobain was the voice of a generation, but a reluctant one, and his death left a huge void. The only way to get a true sense of what happened is to witness it firsthand, and that’s exactly what this film does. It never lets you look away.”

Cobain and Nirvana had a breakthrough album, “Nevermind,” which was released in 1991. The album featured songs such as “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “Come as You Are,” and “Lithium.”

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Through the years Kurt Cobain was mug shot arrested by Aberdeen, Washington police in May 1986. (Photo courtesy Bureau of Prisons/Getty Images) (Donaldson Collection/Getty Images)

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