Robbie Williams

The first time I saw Robbie Williams on my television, it was on MTV, I was six years old and my mother didn't allow me to watch that video of him taking his skin off. Any time I would see that music video happening on my television, I would lower the volume so my mother wouldn't hear that I was listening to Rock DJ and imitating Williams dancing. At that young age, both the video and the song caught my attention too much. For my birthday that same year, I asked my parents if they could give me as a gift the album where I could listen to Rock DJ, so that way I wouldn't need to wait for MTV to play it every time.

Sing When You're Winning was my very first album. Robbie Williams was my very first favorite musician.

I'm telling this story because here I am, watching this documentary. I am almost thirty years old, and I'm seeing not only how they made one of my favorite songs, but I am seeing how it was made, and a version of Robbie Williams that I never saw before.

We as his fans were given the opportunity to have a look at a much private and never seen before footage of what Robbie went through. Robbie opens the door to the memories of his youth, his early career, his fears and anxiety, his addictions and his journey until today, and it feels as if he was taking off his skin, once again.

I did not know that this documentary was coming out, but I'm grateful for it. And I think my mother will now allow me to watch it.

I would imagine that Robbie has been, and still is, hard to live with over the years, At times appearing sad, manic, bolshy but not often happy, it's nice to know that now he finally does seem at peace in his life with his wife and children.

He made some really good music, some not so good, and clearly alienated a lot of people over the years. Being from Leeds, I found it sad that his two massive concerts in Leeds in 2006 were so traumatic for him.

I'd have liked to have had some input from his parents as his Dad, in particular, was often seen with him in the past and they seemed very close.

His house is absolutely gorgeous and I just hope that he is now in a good, calm and happy state of mind as he approaches 50. He is massively talented and hopefully he's lost his demons and can enjoy the rest of his life with his family, whether in the limelight or not.

I just finished and have truly enjoyed it. It is extremely rare for people in the spotlight to be this real, this authentic. And it is a reminder to never judge books by their cover - however shiny they seem. This is footage and tellings of someone young - too young perhaps - that experienced the dark side to the dream. British media bullying. Anxiety. Depression. It's honest and human. We see footage collected over the years, unseen and raw. With the purpose of building a documentary one day. And Robbie watching it for the first time, guiding us through it. A born entertainer yes, but one that has felt alone and fighting addiction throughout. I often found myself wondering how I'd respond to 'younger me' archives. It must be incredibly hard, therapeutic, strange and beautiful all at the same time. Watch it. Worth the time.

You can call it ego, self-centred or whatever you like but there is no denying RWs had a presence, swagger and X factor that so many artists just don't have.

To live that life you need the beans to pull it off. He's made mistakes, and at times, I've found him annoying but the fact still remains, he entertains, has an edginess and realism about him.

This documentary can be interpreted in a number of ways, some good, some bad but it's an insight into what appears to be an honest account and he comes across well.

There is no denying his life has caused him trauma which is a familiar story with fame isn't it. Personally, I enjoyed it and could watch it again.

I grew up in the 'Take that' and the 'Robbie Williams' era and although not their biggest fans I secretly admit to having enjoyed most of the music they dished out. And I have always had a passing interest in Robbie's life, not being able to understand why he seems so troubled.

And the problem with this series is I haven't learned anything new about him. He suffers from depression and he certainly wants us to remember that in this series Money and fame are not the cure to this, at least for Robbie. Having the normality of a family does not seem to have helped him to heal him either.

I don't want to be too hard on him for the above reasons, but he has released this series, and just like he is a musician, I am somebody who has spent 20 years writing honest reviews on here.

The series I'd basically Robbie looking back through his career. For starters, he could have done this in an office somewhere, dressed in appropriate clothing, but no. The whole series was with him sat on his bed in his underwear. Now, I'm a man so don't have a woman's perspective, but it's not a good look. It's a deliberately pretentious way of him 'showing himself off', as he would see it, and maybe it might have worked 30 years ago. But talk about growing old disgracefully.

And the rest of the series is basically old unseen footage of Robbie being miserable about how he has been treated by the press, him being full of nerves before his concert and how he us both comfortable in the UK. In many ways the same type of character as Prince Harry. The main difference is that Harry has had little control in his life until recently whereas Robbie has made all his own choices.

At the end we do get a bit of respite with him talking for all of 2 minutes that his life now is so much better as he now has his wife and four kids. But I don't think that's why he did this documentary. I don't even think he did it for his fans whom he doesn't seem at all grateful for. I doubt he even needed the money. What he did need was to feed his ego, to get us all to understand how hard he had it. The main problem is that it is hard to understand somebody who is unhappy at having the type of life that to many would seem the dream.

Depression is very real and destroys lives. I don't want people thinking I don't understand that, I certainly do. But for so many years now, Robbie has had full autonomy of his life. He has the means for the best of help whilst others have no support whatsoever. Despite his recent happiness with his family and situation, he still has the need to continuously tell us how hard he has had it.