Keith Richards to front BBC documentary on his formative years

LONDON, June 29 (UPI) -- Rolling Stones rocker Keith Richards will take viewers on a stroll through his formative years in post-war Britain during an upcoming BBC 2 documentary.

He'll also take them down side paths for films and live performances during a "lost weekend" series for BBC4 airing in September.

The feature, Keith Richards - The Origins of the Species, will be the centerpiece of BBC's year-long My Generation season on pop music history, The Guardian reported. It airs in July.

Julien Temple will direct the documentary that will "reclaim on film for the first time" the Stones' guitarist's roots growing up in southeast London. Temple's other credits include Great Rock 'n Roll Swindle, Absolute Beginners and Glastonbury.

Richards recalls in the documentary: "There was a feeling late 50s/early 60s that there was a change coming," The Belfast Telegraph reported.

"Harold Macmillan (U.K. prime minister 1957-63) actually said it - 'The winds of change' and all that - but he didn't mean it in quite the same way. I certainly felt that my generation and what was happening and the feeling in the air was it's time to push limits. The world is ours now and you can rise or fall on it."

The documentary tells of how Richards narrowly survived a bomb during World War II when bricks and mortar were blasted on to his bed when he was just a baby. The piece will also recall austerity, rationing and the origins of Britain's National Health Service, ending when the Rolling Stones was formed.

Temple, who made a concert film with the Stones in 1991 called Stones at the Max, is obviously excited about the documentary.

"Listening to the early Stones as a kid changed everything for me. I felt a new way of living emerging, a new kind of person becoming possible – something I wanted to be a part of, he said. "And without a doubt I thought Keith Richards was the origin of the species. This film sets out to explore how both he and the '60s in England came about."

Richards, who wrote his autobiography Life six years ago, is still at it, touring with the Stones at age 72. The band expects to release a new album later this year.