aaamusic | On 20, 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 9^th 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.