This November will mark 30 years since Freddie Mercury lost his battle with AIDS at the age of just 45. And now BBC Two have announced a new documentary that will tell the last chapter of the Queen singer’s amazing life, including the journey up to The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992. Freddie Mercury: The Final Act will include new interviews from some of those who knew the star best.
Alongside Queen bandmates Brian May and Roger Taylor, other talking heads will include Freddie’s sister Kashmira Bulsara.
Plus friends like Anita Dobson, David Wigg and the singer’s PA Peter Freestone.
While rock stars from The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert like Extreme’s Gary Cherone, The Who’s Roger Daltrey, Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, Lisa Stansfield and Paul Young will feature too.
Additionally, the concert’s promoter Harvey Goldsmith and those who felt the impact of AIDS first hand including human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.
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The film’s director James Rogan said: “Making Freddie Mercury: The Final Act has been an extraordinary journey into the final chapter of one of rock music’s greatest icons.
“Working with Queen and getting to see behind-the-scenes of some of their greatest performances and the legendary Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert was a rare privilege.
“Equally important was speaking to the people who had lived through the eye of the storm of the global pandemic of HIV/AIDS, with all its resonances with COVID today. Freddie’s death and the Tribute that Queen organised for him helped to change global awareness of this terrible disease at a critical time.”
Accompanying the new documentary will be Queen at the BBC, which will also be broadcast on BBC Two this November.
A statement on that programme read: “Queen at the BBC is a one-hour special, featuring some of the greatest musical moments from Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon that have been shown on the BBC over the years.
“The legendary band’s huge international status and punishing touring schedules meant they made surprisingly few appearances on programmes like Top of the Pops and frustratingly for fans, several of those performances were lost or never recorded.
“This collection celebrates the very best of what’s survived from one of the most enduring and best-loved acts in British rock – and perhaps the most charismatic and best-loved frontman of all time.
“Amongst the gems are moments from the band’s celebrated 1975 concert at Hammersmith Odeon, London and highlights from the prestigious Montreux Pop Festival, where Freddie and the boys showed the rest how live performance was done. Songs in this programme include the band’s first-ever UK hit, Seven Seas of Rye, These Are The Days of Our Lives and Bohemian Rhapsody – frequently voted the nation’s favourite song.”
Freddie Mercury: The Final Act is set to broadcast on BBC Two in late November around the 30th anniversary of the Queen singer’s death on November 24, 1991.
