A new Freddie Mercury film ‘The Final Act’ is coming

Virgin Radio

29 Oct 2021, 10:19

A new film is coming to BBC2 that will feature something new for even the most devoted Queen fan.

Called ‘Freddie Mercury: The Final Act’, the film will apparently focus on the final chapter of the legendary front man's life.

It will also take in the weeks in the run up to the tribute concert held in his memory at Wembley Stadium in 1992

‘Freddie Mercury: The Final Act’ will air thirty years after Freddie died from AIDS complications back in November 1991.

Fans will be spoiled with plenty of new interviews with the people who were closest to Freddie.

It features conversations with Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor, as well as Freddie’s sister Kashmira Bulsara, his friends Anita Dobson and David Wigg and his PA, Peter Freestone.

There will also be archive footage and music.

Brian May says: “Freddie opened up his heart and gave it everything he had. He was a musician through and through and through. He lived for his music. He loved his music, and he was proud of himself as a musician above everything else.”

Artists and bands who performed at the tribute concert are also interviewed, including Extreme’s Gary Cherone , The Who’s Roger Daltrey, Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, Lisa Stansfield, and Paul Young.

The film starts in 1986, at the end of Queen’s ‘Magic’ tour.

Knebworth Stadium in Hertfordshire hosted the final date. 

The music world was shattered when it was announced that Freddie had been battling HIV/AIDS in secret.

The Freddie Mercury tribute concert had 70,000 people attending and more than a billion viewers on television.

Roger Taylor said: “We were very angry and we had to stick up for our friend – our best friend. I became fixated with the idea of giving him a hell of a send-off.”

Jan Younghusband, Head of Commissioning, BBC Music TV says: “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.

“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.”

James 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.”

‘Freddie Mercury: The Final Act’ isn’t the only new Queen programme coming.

A one-hour special called ‘Queen at the BBC’ will also air in November, featuring highlights of the band’s performances and concerts.