A portion of the tune can be heard over the opening credits to the 6-episode program, which will star Samantha Morton, Tahar Rahim and John Hurt when it debuts on November 12.

Bowie hooked up with director Johan Renck to discuss the series while it was still in the early stages of production. "I showed Mr. Bowie the two first episodes in the rough state they were at the time, and he liked what he saw very much," says Renck. "We discussed the various aspects of the show; naturally the plot line, but also the underlying currents of guilt and personality flaws.

"We talked about the dark heart of Europe. We talked about the biblical aspects of human nature. He asked if there was anything else to see, so I showed him the first concept board I had just made for the title sequence - images from the show laced with chimaeras and demons from the worlds of Bosch and Grunewald.