Freddie Mercury - A
Kind Of Magic
Freddie Mercury - Magic Remixed
Freddie Mercury - A Kind
Of Magic : first shown on ITV1 on 12 September 2006, length 45
mins approx.
Freddie Mercury - Magic Remixed : first shown on ITV4 on 15
September 2006, length 60 mins approx.
Produced by Matt Cain
Executive producers Melvyn Bragg and Gillian Greenwood
Narrator : Craig Kelly
These are essentially the same programme,
but 'Magic Remixed' features some additional footage and
interviews.
This is yet another
programme which takes Freddie's 18 years of musical creativity,
casts most of it aside, and instead looks at his sexuality and
how it allegedly influenced everything he ever did.
It features new interviews with Roger
Taylor, Freddie's mum and sister Jer Bulsara and Kashmira Cooke,
Montserrat Caballe, his longterm boyfriend Jim Hutton, Freddie's
friends Peter Straker, David Evans, David Wigg, his personal
assistant Peter Freestone, and other people including his
schoolfriend Zahid Abrar, Mike Myers, Robbie Williams and McFly.
It also features interviews with Time Out journalist Alkarim
Javani, who takes every opportunity to moan about how selfish
Freddie was not to reveal his sexuality earlier.
The general content is as follows:
- Part One : General overview
- Part Two : early life in
Zanzibar/India, travelling to England, his sexuality,
parties and drugs
- Part Three : Freddie's home life,
illness and death
- Part Four : how Queen music lives
on, and how Freddie's career may have continued had he
lived on
Altogether this is a poor programme,
which concentrates on Freddie's sexuality and illness rather than
his musical output (like so many other programmes). After the
programme was shown, Brian was publically critical of it (and
himself had no involvement in it). Many of the people involved would probably
not have contributed if they knew the content.
Part One
- Excerpt of 'A Kind Of Magic' from
Live At Wembley 1986, numerous interview excerpts (taken
from the rest of the programme) and introductory credits,
with some photos and other footage of Freddie
- Interview with Jer Bulsara and
Kashmira Cooke about Freddie's early life, with early
photographs, and interview with Roger
- Excerpt from 'The Making Of One
Vision' and the promo video, and interviews with
Montserrat Caballe, Robbie Williams and McFly
- Excerpt from promo video of
'Bohemian Rhapsody', and interviews with McFly, Robbie
Williams, and a 1985 interview with Freddie about
songwriting
- Excerpts from 'Wayne's World' and
interview with Mike Myers about the film
- Excerpt of 'Bohemian Rhapsody'
from Milton Keynes, interviews with Robbie Williams and
Roger, and footage of a Freddie Singalong at Milton
Keynes
- Footage of 'Radio Ga Ga' from Live
Aid, and interviews with Kashmira Cooke, Mike Myers,
Roger and Jer Bulsara, about the performance
- Interview with Robbie Williams and
Jim Hutton about Freddie's on stage persona, and
continued 1985 interview with Freddie
- Excerpt from 'The Great Pretender'
promo video, and interviews with David Evans, Peter
Freestone, Kashmira Cooke and David Wigg about Freddie's
sexuality, and audio interview with Freddie from 1987
- Interview with Alkarim Javani
(journalist with Time Out magazine), and interview
excerpt from Freddie from 1984
Part Two
- Footage of general life in
Zanzibar and India, and interviews with Peter Straker and
Roger about Freddie's origins
- Interviews with Kashmira Cooke and
Jer Bulsara about Freddie being sent to boarding school
- Interview with Zahid Abrar, a
school friend, and general footage of Freddie's school,
and interviews with Kashmira Cooke and Jer Bulsara
- Footage of 'Bohemian Rhapsody'
from Milton Keynes, and continued interviews with Zahid
Abrar, Jer Bulsara and Kasmira Cooke
- Interview with Alkarim Javani,
footage of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' video, and interviews with
Zahid Abrar and David Evans
- Excerpt from 'I Want To Break
Free' video, and interview with Kashmira Cooke about
moving to England, withh early photographs
- Interview with Peter Freestone,
with various footage over the years, and short Freddie
interview from 1984
- Interviews with Peter Freestone
and David Wigg about Freddie's sexuality, with various
photos, footage of the 'Living On My Own' video (with
audio excerpt of 'Love Kills'), interviews with David
Wigg, Roger and Peter Straker, and footage of Freddie's
parties
- Footage of New York, with excerpt
of 'Don't Stop Me Now', and interviews with Peter Straker
and Peter Freestone about New York and drugs
- Freddie interview from 1985,
excerpt of 'Somebody To Love' and interviews with Roger
and Jim Hutton, with some photos and home videos of
Freddie, and 1986 Freddie interview
Part Three
- General footage of London, excerpt
of 'Another One Bites The Dust', home video of Freddie's
home, and interviews with Peter Freestone, Jim Hutton and
David Evans
- Interviews with Peter Straker,
David Evans and Peter Freestone about nicknames and
further home video footage
- Advert warning about AIDS, and
interviews with Peter Straker, David Evans and Peter
Freestone, with excerpt of 'Under Pressure' and various
photographs
- Instrumental excerpt of 'Guide Me
Home' and interviews with Peter Freestone, Jim Hutton,
Montserrat Caballe and Roger, about Freddie discovering
he had AIDS, with numerous photographs and some backstage
footage of 'I'm Going Slightly Mad'
- Interviews with Kasmira Cooke and
David Wigg about his illness, archive interview with
Freddie from 1987 and numerous photographs
- Interviews with David Wigg,
Kashmira Cooke and Alkarim Javani about Freddie not
revealing he had AIDS to the media, with instrumental
version of 'How Can I Go On' and further backstage
footage from 'I'm Going Slightly Mad'
- Footage of 'These Are The Days Of
Our Lives', and interviews with Peter Freestone, David
Wigg and Roger about Freddie's illness, then interviews
with Peter Freestone, Roger, Montserrat Caballe, Jim
Hutton and Kashmira Cooke about Freddie's death
Part Four
- Interview with a Freddie
impersonator from the Czech Republic, and footage of them
performing 'We Will Rock You', which segues into Robbie
Williams' performance from Knebworth and interview with
him
- Short footage of the track from
the London 'We Will Rock You' musical, interview with
Montserrat Caballe about rock and opera, footage of a
performance of 'We Will Rock You' at Freddie's school,
interview with Jer Bulsara and footage of the track from
Live Aid
- Interview with Peter Freestone
about Freddie being sixty and footage of 'Who Wants To
Live Forever', and interviews with Peter Straker, Jim
Hutton, Peter Freestone, Montserrat Caballe and Roger,
and interview with Freddie from 1987
- Interviews with Alkarim Javani,
Kashmira Cooke, David Evans, Jim Hutton, Robbie Williams
and Roger about Freddie's career if he had lived on, and
interview with Freddie from 1984
- Backstage footage of 'The Great
Pretender', then instrumental version of 'In My Defence',
and closing interviews with Kashmira Cooke, David Evans,
Roger, Peter Freestone, Freddie interview from 1985,
interviews with Robbie Williams, Mike Myers, McFly,
Roger, Montserrat Caballe and Jer Bulsara
- Closing titles and numerous photos
of Freddie