‘Freddie Mercury: The Final Act’ will air on BBC Two this autumn.
Helmed by James Rogan, the feature will document the extraordinary final chapter of Freddie’s life, as well as the journey leading up to The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium that followed.
It follows the story from Freddie’s last concert to the tribute concert itself which took place on April 20th 1992 and features new interviews with Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor, Freddie’s sister Kashmira Bulsara, his friends Anita Dobson and David Wigg and his PA, Peter Freestone.
We also hear from those who performed at the epic gig, including Gary Cherone (Extreme), Roger Daltrey (The Who), Joe Elliott (Def Leppard), Lisa Stansfield, and Paul Young, as well as the concert’s promoter, Harvey Goldsmith.
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.”
The film starts in 1986, as Queen’s ‘Magic’ tour reaches its climax at Knebworth Stadium in Hertfordshire, after which Freddie secretly battled HIV/AIDS.
In the tragic aftermath of Freddie’s death, Brian and Roger, along with Queen’s manager Jim Beach, devised a plan to commemorate their friend’s life with what would become one of the biggest concerts in history.
They united a line-up of stellar artists including Elton John, David Bowie and Annie Lennox for the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, which was attended by over 70,000 people, with over a billion viewers on television.
The concert not only celebrated Freddie, but it also placed HIV/AIDS clearly in the spotlight and raised awareness of the disease.
About the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS at the time, Roger Taylor says: “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.”
