Documentary claims romantic day out in 70s Berlin inspired Bowie's 'Heroes'

It was the unofficial soundtrack to the 2012 Olympics, inspired a Philip Glass symphony and is David Bowie's most popular track on Spotify.

- Lanre Bakare

Now a new BBC documentary claims the song 'Heroes' was created after a day he shared with Clare Shenstone, the model, actor and artist who had a relationship with Bowie in the mid-1970s.

The notoriously inscrutable singer may have left more questions than answers on his final album, Blackstar, but the origins of 1977's 'Heroes' was something fans thought was sewn up: Bowie consistently claimed the song was written after he saw the producer Tony Visconti sharing an embrace with his then-girlfriend beside the Berlin Wall.

However, BBC Radio 4's Bowie in Berlin says the song was informed by his time with Shenstone during his stay in the German capital that inspired three of his most feted records: Low, 'Heroes' and Lodger.

The documentary is a reappraisal of the much - mythologised period, with Shenstone telling Francis Whately - who made the 2013 Bowie film Five Years - about their outing.