Her messy private life apart, Winehouse was one of the "icons who changed popular music forever", NME wrote. NME music magazine called the documentary "touching if defensive", saying it was a "sweet tribute to a daughter, friend and mercurial talent".īut The Financial Times was more sceptical, writing that Winehouse's parents and especially "lime-light-loving father Mitch were front and centre in her career".Īt one point in the documentary, Mitch smiles and is "seemingly oblivious" as he watches a clip in which Winehouse duets with him while "embarrassingly drunk", it adds. I just don't think people would get away with it, especially when it came to her mental health". Gourley also suggested that with today's greater awareness of mental health issues and addiction, Winehouse would not face such mockery in tabloids and gossip magazines. Winehouse's friend Gourley told BBC Radio 4, the reality was different: "Janis and Mitch were there, all the time," she insisted, listing "the countless times she (Amy) was taken to rehab facilities or there was an intervention". "I still get it now: 'You were complicit in your daughter's death, you killed your daughter'," her father says in the documentary. This was the main thrust of "Amy", an Oscar-winning British documentary from 2015, which was particularly damning about Mitch and Winehouse's ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil. The documentary also seeks to counter accusations that her family relished her success and did not do enough to help her overcome addiction. "You think you know my daughter - the drugs, the addiction, the destructive relationships - but there was so much more," her mother says in the voiceover. Narrated by her mother Janis Winehouse-Collins and titled "Reclaiming Amy", the documentary to air on BBC2 features interviews with long-standing friends, including one, Catriona Gourley, who reveals she had a romantic relationship with Winehouse. She died from alcohol poisoning on July 23, 2011. The singer put her own experiences into original songs, such as "Back to Black" and "Rehab", infused with jazz and soul influences and developed a distinctive personal style with a towering beehive hairdo and tattoos.īut her performances grew more erratic due to drug and alcohol use while tabloids published stories calling her "Amy Decline-house" or "wino". Winehouse's parents have cooperated with a BBC documentary to air on the anniversary of her death on Friday, which her father Mitchell, known as Mitch, says gives a "more rounded image of Amy".