The Awfully Big Adventure Michael Jackson in the Afterlife

Michael Jackson died on June 25 2009 in LA, from acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication (according to Wikipedia). The one-time King of Pop was preparing for one last assault on the mainstream with a 50 night run of shows at the O2. His exhaustion, paranoia and ill-heath were an open secret. He had lived many lives and inhabited many bodies; PT Barnum, Fred Astaire, and Peter Pan in one mortal coil. His death was mourned by hundreds of millions of fans but it was almost as if he had been dead for some time already. And in his death, we relived the dreams, nightmares, fantasies, and perversions that we had all projected on to him as a celebrity for four decades. Paul Morley's short biographical portrait of Michael Jackson looks at how we turned the most outrageous child star talent of the late 20th century into a monster; and how his decline soundtracked the end of Pop and the end of American Imperialism.