You can’t underestimate the impact of the moment Bowie broke through the fourth wall, pointed right into the camera and, with a sardonic smile, and sang: “I had to phone someone so I picked on you-hoo-hoo.”

 

There were furious scenes in living rooms the length and breadth of Britain as perplexed parents – especially dads – expressed their fury and disgust at David Bowie’s androgynous appearance in his multicoloured catsuit.

 

And cataclysmic scenes at the bit where he drapes an arm tenderly around the neck of his guitarist, Mick Ronson, who looks just the teeniest bit uncomfortable in his gold lame catsuit and matching Gibson guitar, being a bloke from Hull rather than an art school boy from Beckenham.

 

Watch it now – nearly half a century later – and Bowie’s carefully contrived performance is clear: he’s planned this down to the finest detail and he knows exactly what he’s doing with that serene smile that says: “Yes, you boring people at home in your suits and cardigans and sensible shoes, your children will never be the same again after THIS.”

 

And we weren’t.