Viewers across the UK tuned in on October 2, 2025, for a poignant farewell to one of rock’s most enduring legends, as BBC One aired the much-anticipated documentary Sharon & Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home. The hour-long film, originally scheduled for August but postponed at the family’s request following Ozzy Osbourne’s death, offered a rare, intimate window into the final years of the Prince of Darkness. The documentary, which is now streaming on BBC iPlayer, has been described by the BBC as “a tribute to love, legacy, and family”—and for fans, it delivered on every note.
Ozzy Osbourne, the iconic frontman of Black Sabbath, died on July 22, 2025, at age 76. His passing came just 17 days after what would become his final live performance—a star-studded farewell concert at Birmingham’s Villa Park, the city where his legendary career began. According to his death certificate, Ozzy died of a heart attack, with coronary heart disease and Parkinson’s disease also cited. The BBC documentary captures the bittersweet reality of these last days, following Ozzy and his wife Sharon as they planned a return to their roots in the English countryside after decades in Los Angeles.
From the outset, Coming Home sets the tone with Ozzy and Sharon traveling together, reflecting on their mansion in Buckinghamshire. “I’m so looking forward to an English summer,” Ozzy muses, while Sharon confides, “We’ve always referred to this as home.” The documentary, which was initially conceived as an eight-part fly-on-the-wall series, was ultimately condensed into an hour-long special due to Ozzy’s declining health and the events that followed. Yet, as NME notes, the decision to keep the cameras rolling meant that fans could savor one last glimpse of Ozzy’s irrepressible spirit.
Despite his legendary reputation for rock-and-roll excess, the Ozzy depicted in Coming Home is thoughtful, vulnerable, and, at times, wickedly funny. He recounts a classic tale of baking marijuana cakes for Christmas—only for the local vicar to unwittingly eat a slice or two. “He thought he had the 'flu',” Ozzy recalled, a mischievous twinkle in his eye suggesting the incident was no accident. The documentary is peppered with such anecdotes, but it also doesn’t shy away from the toll that decades of music—and misadventure—took on his body.
Ozzy had been clean for a decade and had battled Parkinson’s disease for nearly 20 years by the time of his death. The film shows him undergoing physiotherapy, determined to get fit enough to bid his fans a proper goodbye on stage. In one particularly moving scene, he says, “If I had my legs, I’d love to build a vegetable garden.” Sharon, ever the pragmatic partner, gently steers conversations away from mortality. “One thing I cannot stand is funerals,” Ozzy remarks at one point, to which Sharon replies, “Let’s talk about moving (house) and not death.”
The emotional climax of the documentary comes with footage from that final Villa Park concert. Ozzy, forced to perform seated due to a spinal injury, describes the experience as “humbling.” He confesses, “The only thing that was terribly frustrating for me, I had to sit there instead of running across the stage. I wanted to get up and sing so much. It was very humbling to sit in that chair for nine songs.” The event, which featured not only Black Sabbath but also artists like Metallica and Guns N’ Roses, was a fitting send-off for a man credited as one of the founding fathers of heavy metal.
Reflecting on his life and career, Ozzy is candid: “I’ve had a lot of fun. I’ve had a lot of blood, sweat and tears, you know. It’s been a great life. If I could live my life again, I wouldn’t change a damn thing.” In another moment, he quips, “The things I’ve done to my body I should be f***ing dead anyway!” His daughter Kelly, who appears alongside siblings Jack and Aimee, admits, “I always thought my dad was invincible. But Iron Man wasn’t really made of iron.”
Beyond the music, the documentary explores the couple’s plan to retire in Hertfordshire, England. Sharon admits, “This is it, this is our time. However long it is.” The reality of being left alone in their sprawling estate after Ozzy’s death adds a layer of heartbreak to the film’s closing scenes. Yet, there are moments of levity, too. Ozzy jokes about his newfound addiction to Pink Lady apples before leaving Los Angeles: “I did get hooked on apples for a while. Not just any apples, mind you. They had to be Pink Lady apples... I got to the point where some nights I was eating 12 of 'em. It’s a wonder I didn’t wake up one day with an apple tree sprouting out of my arse.”
Ozzy’s memoir, Last Rites, is set for posthumous publication, offering further insight into his final months. In excerpts published by BBC News, he reveals a harrowing bout with sepsis at the start of 2025 and an eight-day hospital stay soon after returning to the UK. “The whole family basically thought I was a goner,” he wrote. Sharon, meanwhile, has publicly thanked fans for their “overwhelming love and support,” admitting she is “still finding my footing” after losing her partner of more than four decades.
For fans and newcomers alike, Coming Home is both a celebration and a farewell—a testament to a life lived at full volume, but also to the quieter moments of love and resilience that defined Ozzy’s final years. Another documentary, No Escape From Now, is slated to air soon, promising an even deeper dive into the last six years of his life. And as Ozzy himself put it in one of his final interviews, “What a great way to go out that gig was!”
As his coffin took its final journey through Birmingham, watched by thousands of chanting fans, it was clear that Ozzy Osbourne’s legacy is secure—not just as a rock legend, but as a husband, father, and, in his own words, someone who “wouldn’t change a thing.”
