Betty Davis: Godmother of Funk – BBC4

(Image credit: Getty Images)

BBC4 documentary Betty Davis: Godmother of Funk tells the story of the enigmatic and pioneering 1970s singer-songwriter Betty Davis

In the early 1970s, a young female singer was ripping up the rule book and astonishing people with her powerful, uncompromising and daring lyrics and performances – BBC4’s Betty Davis: Godmother of Funk tells her story.

Betty was a pioneer, paving the way for women to this very day to be themselves and be proud of it.

This film explores her extraordinary life story, which is made all the more powerful because, after burning so bright, Betty just disappeared.

MORE: See our new TV listings guide

No one knew where she was, or even if she was still alive.

But as she now explains in her own words, although this documentary never shows her face, she grew tired of the music industry because, ‘everyone wanted me to be something I wasn’t.’

As her former husband, the jazz musician Miles Davis once described her, ‘Madonna before Madonna, Prince before Prince.’

Main picture: Getty Images

TV Times rating: ****