Living with Michael Jackson (TV)

Living with Michael Jackson is a Granada Television documentary, in which British journalist Martin Bashir interviewed Michael Jackson over a span of 8 months, from May 2002 to January 2003. It was shown first in the UK on ITV (as a Tonight special) on 3 February 2003 and in the US three days later on ABC, introduced by Barbara Walters. Martin Bashir put the proposal to Jackson as a way to show the world the truth about him and "make nothing off limits." Jackson's decision to make the documentary was made on a suggestion by his close friend Uri Geller. It later emerged that Geller had turned down another 'bid' for the interview by journalist Louis Theroux. The interview was very unusual, as it had been extremely rare for Jackson to allow such access to his personal life, or to talk so freely about his traumatic childhood. Nevertheless, he did show some reserve when asked to discuss other personal issues, such as the plastic surgery he had allegedly had.