An upcoming 90-minute BBC documentary, Freddie Mercury: The Final Act, will feature new interviews with the band’s members discussing the final chapter of the late Queen singer’s life. According to Variety, the documentary will feature chats with Queen guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor — bassist John Deacon retired from music in 1997 — as well as Mercury’s sister Kashmira Bulsara, friends Anita Dobson and David Wigg and personal assistant Peter Freestone.
The BBC Two film will drop 30 years after Mercury died of complications from AIDS in Nov. 1991 and in addition to depicting the final chapter of the theatrical rock singer’s life it will tackle the run-up to the band’s all-star tribute concert to their front man at Wembley Stadium in April 1992. Some of the featured guests from that show, including Roger Daltrey of the Who, Extreme singer Gary Cherone, Paul Young and Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, as well as promoter Harvey Goldsmith, are also interviewed.
The concert also featured performances from Metallica, U2, Guns N’ Roses, Robert Plant, David Bowie and Annie Lennox, Seal and many more.
“[Director] James Rogan’s film Freddie Mercury: The Final Act, is a poignant story of one of music’s most popular and talented musicians, and the legacy he left,” said Jan Younghusband, head of commissioning, BBC Music TV. “Not only does it shine new light on Freddie Mercury’s brave journey through those final five years of his life, it also tells a wider — and hugely important — story of the emergence of AIDS at the time and how the incredible tribute concert after his death, helped to change for the better public opinion about the crisis. The artists of Queen and others who were there, speak candidly for the first time.”
Director Rogan added, “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.”
The film will also feature others impacted by HIV/AIDS, including medical practitioners, survivors and human rights campaigners.
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