Press Release: 'Queen: Days Of Our Lives' Documentary
MAJOR BBC TV DOCUMENTARY
Unseen footage and rare interviews to celebrate 40th Anniversary
Broadcast on BBC Two on 29th and 30th May 2011
Queen continue to celebrate their 40th anniversary in regal fashion
with the broadcast of a major two part BBC Two TV documentary ‘Queen:
Days of Our Lives’ which sees Roger Taylor and Brian May looking back at
the band’s incredible career in candid detail for the first time.
Showing on BBC Two at 10pm on 29th and 30th May the two one hour
shows explore the remarkable story of Brian, Roger, John Deacon and
Freddie Mercury - looking into the early struggles, huge obstacles,
success, arguments, breakups, triumph, tragedy and an enduring legacy –
all against a backdrop of brilliant music and stunning live
performances. With an extensive archive of unseen footage (the producers
uncovered Queen's first ever TV performance, missing believed wiped,
and shown here for the first time) plus remarkable archive interviews
with Freddie Mercury, the documentary is the band’s story in their own
words – a compelling journey told with intelligence, wit, plenty of
humour and painful honesty.
The documentaries cover each of the band’s studio albums, their
legendary world tours of the 70’s and 80’s as they conquered South and
North America and Asia, Live Aid and their enduring success since the
passing of Freddie leading up to the present day and a popularity that
continues to grow yearly. The Sun annointed them ‘Britain’s Best Loved
Band’ earlier this year.
‘Queen: Days of Our Lives’ is produced by Rhys Thomas (the comedian
who famously broke the Mastermind all time record points score with a
specialist subject of Queen) and Simon Lupton, and is directed by the
renowned director Matt O’Casey.
Rhys Thomas comments, “We have set out to make the definitive Queen
documentary. It's a funny, honest, inspiring and ultimately tragic
account of ‘a certain band called Queen’, as told by the band
themselves. We tell the story of four students who met in West London,
slogged hard and conquered the world, ultimately changing rock music
forever.”
The band will be previewing the documentaries in a rare radio
interview as they guest live on the Chris Evans BBC Radio 2 Breakfast
Show on May 27th. Brian and Roger will also attend the 9th anniversary
celebration performance of their hit musical We Will Rock You on the
evening of Tuesday May 31 at The Dominion Theatre with Brian performing
with the cast.
Queen's 40th Anniversary year has kicked off in spectacular style so
far with their first ever major exhibition 'Stormtroopers in Stilettos'
in London’s East End which drew an incredible crowd of over 20,000
visitors in two weeks, and kicked off with a star studded launch party
attended by the likes of Foo Fighters and Jessie J. Meanwhile the bands
first five albums have been reissued to considerable acclaim. The
Telegraph said of their early work, 'Queen's greatest music was
extravagantly innovative, technically brilliant and created with a
jeweller's care.’ The five albums covering the 77-82 period (News of the
World’, ‘Jazz’, ’The Game’, ‘Flash Gordon’ and ‘Hot Space’) are also
reissued on June 27th.
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