British Professor to spend twelve months 'being' David Bowie

Brooker, a self-confessed 'superfan', has gone as far as possible to become fully immersed in his Bowie lifestyle. Far from stopping at appearances he is also imitating eating habits, travelling to the same cities, and consuming the same literature, film and music that Bowie would have experienced. His reading list consists of works from William Burroughs and Friedrich Nietzsche, whilst his diet has consisted of a glorious banquet of red peppers and milk.

But, before labelling Brooker as a real life 'nutty' professor, there is some justification for his actions. The social experiment is being undertaken as research for a monograph that Brooker has been commissioned to write; set to be titled Forever Stardust. Brooker explained to the Guardian that: "The idea is to inhabit Bowie’s head space at points in his life and career to understand his work from an original angle, while retaining a critical and objective perspective at the same time - a kind of split persona perhaps."

However, that old stick-in-the-mud, the 'law' has made full Bowie immersion tricky: "The levels of cocaine Bowie was consuming is not just illegal for a professor like myself, but it’s much too expensive - as well as unhealthy. So at the weekend I had a six-pack of energy drinks to try and simulate the experience of illegal substances. It made me very jumpy."

Brooker is also set to become Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and the Thin White Duke... although whether he will be seen sporting a colossal crotch bulge as 'Labyrinth Bowie' is yet to be confirmed.