Other TV Programmes Featuring Queen
All of the programmes on this page feature some
content related to Queen, or Queen connections, but they are not
exclusively about the group.
All shows were broadcast on the main terrestrial or digital
channels available in central England. This lists all of the
programmes broadcast since about March 1999; undoubtedly there
will have been specific programmes produced and broadcast before
this, and I could well have missed other programmes broadcast
since then.
'Top Of The Pops' performances are not included here, as they are
too numerous and too little is known about dates. In addition to
the programmes on this page, several contestants on the quiz show
'Mastermind' have answered questions on Queen, full details and
their questions can be found in the Quiz section.
- A Journey Through Space And Time - 50 Years Of The Sky At
Night (Brian, 2005)
This programme, broadcast on BBC 4 in August 2005, was
part of an evening of programmes marking the 50th
anniversary of 'A Sky At Night'. Presented by Sir Patrick
Moore, the programme featured footage from the past 50
years, and interviews with astronomers and scientists.
Brian appears alongside Sir Tim Rice in the first part of
the programme, discussing how they became interested in
astronomy and memories of first watching the programme,
as well as their favourite phenomena.
- Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway (Brian, 2002)
Brian appears to play a short 'We Will Rock You' guitar
solo, next to a Queen fan who wrote to 'Jim'll Fix It'
many years ago. Length 1:30
- Inside Buckingham Palace (Brian, 2016)
This documentary, episode 1 of the series, was broadcast
on Channel 5 on 24 February 2016, and featured a short
interview with Brian about performing on the roof of the
palace at the Jubilee Concert in 2002. Length 2:20
- Live Aid (also known as 'The Story Of Live Aid') (Queen,
2005)
This two part three hour documentary told the story of
Live Aid, from the initial BBC news reports of the
Ethiopian famine, to the day itself and beyond. Part one
("Against All Odds") focused on the build up to
the concert, and featured a brief interview with Roger.
Part two ("Rocking All Over The World") told
the story of the day itself, featuring interviews with
Roger and Brian, and extensive footage from Queen's
performance.
- Party At The Palace (Queen, 2002)
This was a documentary about the concert, and featured
brief interview clips with Brian, clips from the concert,
and some rehearsal footage. It also featured an interview
with Brian on top of the palace, which was intercut with
a spoof interview with Rowan Atkinson. The program
featured around 8 minutes of Queen content, spread
throughout the program.
- Tomorrow's World Awards (Brian, 2002)
Brian makes a brief appearance to present Sir Patrick
Moore with an award. Length 1:30
- The Big Eclipse (Brian, 1998)
Brian presents two short clips talking about the solar
eclipse, what happens and what to expect, which last
around 4 minutes in total
- The Brit Awards 1996 (Roger)
Host Chris Evans introduces the 'Freddie Mercury Award'
for charitable projects, followed by a short clip
featuring 'Too Much Love Will Kill You' and footage of
Freddie. Roger is then introduced, and makes a short
speech to present Thom Yorke of Radiohead and Brian Eno
(the producer) with an award for the album 'Help', which
was in aid of Warchild. Length 3 minutes.
- The Brit Awards 2000 (Queen)
Queen appear with Five at the opening of the show,
performing 'We Will Rock You'. Initially, Queen are
hidden underneath a ramp, but they are revealed as the
instrumental section begins.
- This Is Your Life - Anita Dobson (Brian, 2002)
Brian appears on the show celebrating the life of his
wife Anita Dobson. Brian's contribution, however,
involves just a small speech about how they met and their
wedding, which lasts around 2 minutes.
In addition, Brian was also an occasional contributor to the
BBC series 'The Sky At Night', hosted by his close friend, Sir
Patrick Moore.
Another programme not listed here is The
Dave Clark Five And Beyond - Glad All Over, broadcast in
February 2015, which features a section about the 'Time' musical,
including interviews with Freddie. However, this was a film
documentary, rather than produced specifically for TV.
Al Murray's
Happy Hour
Queen have made two appearances on this show in both 2007 and
2008. Al Murray is a big Queen fan and on every show of each
series, a guest artist appears and performs a Queen song, with Al
Murray himself normally joining in on vocals.
In 2007, the cast of 'We Will Rock You' appeared to perform 'We
Will Rock You' (with a bit of 'Tear It Up'), and after about 2
minutes a curtain dropped to reveal Roger and Brian. Brian and
Roger also appeared briefly in a sketch at the end of the show.
In 2008, Queen + Paul Rodgers appeared, performing the new song
'C-lebrity' during the show, 'Bohemian Rhapsody' during the ad
break (only the last part was broadcast) and appearing at the end
to perform a shortened version of 'All Right Now', with Paul and
Al Murray on vocals.
Footage of 'C-lebrity' from 2008 was later made available to
download on the QueenOnline website, and available on the CD
single.
A Question Of
Pop
Broadcast in 2000, this was a 30 minute music based quiz, an
almost direct copy of 'A Question Of Sport'. The show was hosted
by Jamie Theakston, and Roger was on the same side as team
captain Suggs, and former Eternal singer Kelly Bryan. The other
team had team captain Noddy Holder, Kirsty MacColl and B'Witched
singer Lindsay Armaou. The show also included footage of Roger
from various promo videos as an introduction.
Battle
Of The Popstars Live
This programme was shown on Channel 5 in September 2006. It
featured five rounds, each one featured a number of 'bouts' where
one artist was against another artist, with members of the public
voting for their favourite, with the winnner progressing to the
next round. It combined short clips from promo videos and live
concerts, with interviews from numerous people (with no
involvement from Roger/Brian, the only Queen connection is Mick
Rock). The show was narrated by Jamie Theakston. The rounds
involving Queen were as follows (with the times being for both
artists)
- Round 1 : Queen vs Blondie
Length 3 minutes : general overview of each band, then
comparison at the end
- Round 2 : Queen vs Whitney Houston
Length 3 minutes : Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You,
We Are The Champions and I Want To Break Free, comparison
at the end
- Round 3 : Queen vs Kylie Minogue
Length 4 minutes : live shows, videos and the musical
(with video footage)
- Round 4 : Queen vs The Beatles
Length 4 minutes : Freddie's life
- Round 5 : Queen vs Elvis Presley
Length 6 minutes : general overview again
Queen finished second overall with Elvis Presley the winner.
Brian Pern
This was a spoof BBC documentary about fictional ageing rock star
Brian Pern, who was based on Peter Gabriel. The series charts his
career and reluctant reunion with former band mates in the group
Thotch. The series stars Simon Day as Brian Pern, with Michael
Kitchen as his manager John Farrow, who is loosely based on
Queen's manager Jim Beach.
The series also stars comedian Paul Whitehouse and actor Nigel
Havers as his Thotch bandmates, and features interviews with
Roger Taylor (who is often captioned as being in Duran Duran),
Rick Wakeman, Phil Collins, Mike Read, Jools Holland, Noel
Edmonds and David Baddiel, as well as character appearances by
Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, Matt Lucas, Lucy Montgomery and Al
Murray.
Series 1, titled "The Life Of Rock, With Brian Pern",
was a three part series which started in February 2014. Episode 1
features an extract of 'Mustapha', episode 2 features the
'Another One Bites The Dust' video, and episode 3 features both
'Man On The Prowl' and live footage of 'We Are The Champions',
with short interviews with Roger in the first two episodes.
Series 2, titled "Brian Pern, A Life In Rock", also
featured three episodes, starting in December 2014, and featured
Roger in episode 3 only, talking about Top Of The Pops.
Series 3, titled "Brian Pern: 45 Years Of Prog And
Roll", again featured three episodes, and was broadcast in
January 2016. Episode 2 features Roger talking about awards, with
faked footage of an awards ceremony, while the episode also
features an excerpt of 'Two Sharp Pencils'. Episode 3 features
Roger talking about Kensington Market, and also features the
introduction to 'Brighton Rock'.
The series was released on DVD in 2016, and features a bonus
episode 'Brian Pern At The BBC', as well as various deleted and
extended scenes. However, Roger does not appear in any of these
bonus features.
The series was co-written and directed by Rhys Thomas, who
previously directed the Freddie Mercury documentary 'The
Great Pretender', and produced the Queen documentary 'Days Of Our Lives'
and a number of other releases. He also wrote the 2002 BBC comedy
'Fun
At The Funeral Parlour', which featured a theme tune by
Brian, and appeared on the BBC quiz show 'Mastermind' in 2010,
answering questions on Queen.
Britain's Favourite Number One Single
This two hour and five minute programme was broadcast on Channel
5 on 21 February 2005. The programme stated that the list was the
result of the largest ever poll. The top 10 were:
- Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)
- Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkel)
- Hey Jude (The Beatles)
- The House Of The Rising Sun (The Animals)
- A Whiter Shade Of Pale (Procol Harum)
- Do They Know It's Christmas (Band Aid)
- Imagine (John Lennon)
- Dancing Queen (Abba)
- Every Breath You Take (The Police)
- Candle In The Wind '97 (Elton John)
The clip about 'Bohemian Rhapsody' lasts for only a few
minutes and features footage from the video, intercut with
interviews with Mick Rock, Status Quo, Professor Allan Moore (a
musicologist), Stewart Copeland (of The Police) and several other
journalists or DJ's.
Full details of the poll and how it compares with others is
available on the Poll
Analysis - Singles page.
Children In Need
Broadcast on 16 November 2002. Queen performed with the cast of
'We Will Rock You' at this annual fundraising night, taking to
the stage at around 12:15am for around 12 minutes. The tracks
performed were:
- Another One Bites The Dust (vocals by Sharon D. Clarke,
but the music does not feature Queen)
- We Will Rock You (vocals by Tony Vincent)
- We Are The Champions (vocals by Tony Vincent)
- We Are The Champions (second version) (vocals by Tony
Vincent)
Daily Live
Broadcast in August or September 1998. Brian talks to host Paul
Ross for around 9 minutes, about his career in general. The show
features footage of 'We Will Rock You' from 1986, a short clip of
'I Want It All' and part of 'The Show Must Go On'. It also
features an excerpt from the promo video for Rolf Harris's
version of 'Bohemian Rhapsody', and also a rare 45 second clip of
the promo video of 'Why Don't We Try Again?'. Brian was also due
to return to the show to talk about the British Bone Marrow Donor
Association (BBMDA), but I think they ran out of time.
Music Of
The Millennium
Broadcast in November 1999. This programme was the result of a
several month long poll to find the nation's favourite song. The
overall programme was hosted by Richard Blackwood but many of the
discussion parts of the show were hosted by Jo Whiley. 'Bohemian
Rhapsody' was voted the number one song, and as a result Brian
and Roger were invited to talk about the track, alongside Bob
Geldof, Jarvis Cocker and journalist Miranda Sawyer, which was
recorded on 6 November. The programme ended with footage of
'Bohemian Rhapsody' from Wembley 1986, and the discussion and
track lasted around 10 minutes in total.
Oh
You Pretty Things: The Story Of Music And Fashion
First broadcast on BBC 4 on 24 September 2014. This was episode
two of a three part series, titled 'Idols'. The episode
concentrated on the 1970's and featured Suzi Quatro, Rich
Wakeman, Queen and the Sex Pistols, among others. The programme
featured clips from the 'Live At The Rainbow' DVD, as well as the
'Seven Seas Of Rhye' and 'Killer Queen' 'Top Of The Pops'
appearances. It featured interviews with Brian, filmed in his
attic, alongside many of his stage costumes, as well as
interviews with designer Zandra Rhodes and others. In total, the
section on Queen lasted approximately 15 minutes.
Operation Good
Guys
This was a groundbreaking mock documentary, which was broadcast
on the BBC for three series between 1997 and 2000. The show
featured Queen's manager Jim Beach as the role of The
Commissioner in a few episodes (series 1 episode 6, series 2
episode 1, and series 3 episodes 5 and 6), and he was also an
executive producer. The main character is also named Jim Beach.
Series 2 episode 5 features a scene with Tony Wadsworth from EMI,
sat in front of promotional merchandise for Brian's 'Another
World' album.
The show was created, written by, directed by and starred Ray
Burdis and Dominic Anciano. They also directed footage for
Brian's 'Driven By You' video, which appears on the 'Greatest
Flix III' video. The show also featured John Beckett, who wrote
much of the music, and ran Fugitive Music alongside the creators.
In 1992, Carl Ward and Colin Peters of No More Brothers produced
various remixes of 'Living
On My Own', including the radio mix which reached no. 1 in
the UK chart (with Ray Burdis receiving special thanks on the
sleeve). They teamed up with Fugitive Music to become Fugitive
Brothers, and produced various remixes of 'Love Kills'.
Parkinson
Broadcast on 18 May 2002, but recorded on 2 May 2002. Queen
performed four live tracks with the cast of 'We Will Rock You' to
promote the musical, and their performance lasts around 10
minutes. Ben Elton was one of the guests on the show, but his
interview focused on his career and did not really mention the
musical. The tracks performed were:
- Somebody To Love (vocals by Hannah Jane Fox)
- Ben Elton Introduction (a 'Hammer To Fall' style
instrumental piece)
- We Will Rock You (vocals by Tony Vincent)
- We Are The Champions (vocals by Tony Vincent)
Seven Ages Of
Rock : We Are The Champions
Broadcast on 16 June 2007 on BBC2 at 9.05 pm, length 60 minutes.
This programme covers the history of stadium rock, featuring
profiles of Led Zeppelin, Queen, Kiss, Bruce Springsteen, The
Police, Dire Straits, U2, and of course Live Aid. Four sections
of the programme feature Queen:
- Introduction (1:00) : features a short (new) burst of the
'We Will Rock You' guitar solo by Brian, and footage of
'We Are The Champions' live
- Queen Profile (pt 1) (6:00)
General overview of Queen and their live shows, including
footage of the 'Bohemian Rhapsody' video, 'Now I'm Here'
at the Budokan and Hammersmith, 'We Will Rock You/We Are
The Champions' from Houston, and 'We Will Rock You' from
1982 and Knebworth. It also features footage of Queen's
first visit to Japan, and new interviews with Brian and
Roger about their early shows and how Brian wrote 'We
Will Rock You'.
- Queen Profile (pt 2) (4:00)
Mainly concentrates on their South America tour of 1981,
including footage of 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love'
from Montreal, and 'Another One Bites The Dust' and 'Love
Of My Life' from South America. It also includes an
interview with Brian about The Police, with Roger about
Freddie's views on politics, then footage of the 'I Want
To Break Free' video and interviews about Queen's decline
in the US.
- Live Aid (3:00)
Includes footage of numerous Queen songs from the
concert, and interviews with Bob Geldof and Roger about
Queen's performance and getting Freddie to agree to
perform.
Smith & Jones
Broadcast on 14 October 1998. Brian appears in four sketches
which appear throughout the programme. The sketches are about
Brian being invited to Mel Smith & Griff Rhys Jones flat for
a 'lad's night in'. The sketches are:
- Mel tells them all to act normally when Brian is there,
so much so that they are hoovering and weight training
when he arrives.
- A little later they are all staring at Brian in awe,
before Mel pours Brian a drink of whiskey into a pint
glass, filling it to the top. Griff then asks Brian if he
could sign a CD for him, much to Mel's annoyance.
- The lads are playing darts, eating takeaways etc, and the
camera pans round to reveal Brian is buried under a mass
of items for signing - LP's, CD's, posters, and even
plaster casts. Griff then invites an old school friend
who used to bully him, explaining that Brian is here,
before telling him to piss off again.
- Griff is on the phone to Eric Clapton, who is coming
round. Griff then tells Brian to act normally, that it is
no big deal, and that he should do as they do. When Eric
arrives (it's not really him) they are all doing as they
were when Brian arrived - only this time Brian is
hoovering too.
TFI Friday
Broadcast in October 1998, Roger was a guest on the show hosted
by Chris Evans. The interview began with video footage of
'Another One Bites The Dust', 'Killer Queen', 'It's A Hard Life',
'I Want To Break Free' and 'A Kind Of Magic', and then Roger
talked about his career, lifestyle and new album (Electric Fire).
Roger then performed 'Radio Ga Ga', followed by a short reprise
of the track, and returned at the end of the show to perform 'No
More Fun'. The interview and performances last for around 18
minutes in total.
The 100 Greatest Number One Singles
Broadcast in either 2001 or 2002 on Channel 4. This was a four
hour programme featuring footage of the top 100 number one
singles. I'm not quite sure what criteria was used to compile the
list, given some of the choices (eg 'Groovejet' is included in
the top 10, yet 'Do They Know It's Christmas' and 'Candle In The
Wind '97', two of the best selling singles of all time, were
not). The top ten tracks were:
- Imagine (John Lennon)
- Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)
- Hey Jude (The Beatles)
- Dancing Queen (Abba)
- Every Breath You Take (The Police)
- Stand By Me (Ben E King)
- The Drugs Don't Work (The Verve)
- Don't Look Back In Anger (Oasis)
- Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) (Spiller)
- Everything I Do (I Do It For You) (Bryan Adams)
The feature on 'Bohemian Rhapsody' was around 3 minutes long
and featured footage from the video, and interviews with Roger
Taylor, Nile Rodgers, Emma B and Eric Hall (who worked for EMI in
plugging the record in 1975).
Full details of the poll and how it compares with others is
available on the Poll
Analysis - Singles page.
The Joy
Of The Guitar Riff
Broadcast on 18 July 2014 on BBC 4. This was an hour long
programme looking at the history, development and impact of some
of the most significant guitar riffs. It features interviews with
Brian, Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Dave Davies (The Kinks), Hank
Marvin (The Shadows), Nile Rodgers (Chic) and many other
guitarists. As always the choice of featured tracks seems rather
odd, as it barely mentions several of the most famous riffs and
guitarists, including Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix.
The programme featured tracks by Chuck Berry, The Shadows, The
Kinks, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Chic, Michael Jackson, Nirvana
and others. Brian comments on many of the featured riffs and
plays many on his own guitar. The programme also features
'Bohemian Rhapsody', and clips from the promo video, as well as
clips of 'Tie Your Mother Down', while Brian talks about making
his guitar.
The Top
10 Guitar Heroes
Broadcast on 24 March 2001 on Channel 4. This was an 85 minute
long programme, presented by Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt of
Status Quo. The guitarists were included based on their
transatlantic success, their influence and their innovation. The
guitarists were:
- Jimi Hendrix
- Eric Clapton
- Jimmy Page
- Hank Marvin
- Brian May
- Pete Townshend
- The Edge
- Eddie Santana
- Ritchie Blackmore
- Johnny Marr
The feature on Brian was around 7 minutes long and included:
- Footage of Brian with his dad from the 'Magic Years'
video, talking about the Red Special
- Footage of 'We Will Rock You' guitar solos from numerous
performances
- Interviews from numerous people, including Brian and
Roger
- An extract of 'April Lady', with footage of Smile at the
Royal Albert Hall
- Footage of 'Keep Yourself Alive', of Queen in Japan, and
the video of 'Bohemian Rhapsody', plus an excerpt of Rolf
Harris' cover version
- Footage of Queen parties, Live Aid, the 'Just For Fun'
version of 'One Vision', and news reports of Freddie's
death
- Footage of Slash with Queen at the Freddie Mercury
Tribute Concert
- Footage of Brian and Anita Dobson performing 'Talking Of
Love', and the Ford TV ad
- Interviews with Brian and members of Five about the 'We
Will Rock You' collaboration, and footage of the Brit
Award performance
- And final interviews with Brian and Anita about Brian's
hair
The Top
100 Promo Videos
This four hour programme was broadcast on Channel 4 on 6th
February 2005, and concentrated on the best pop videos. The top
10 was as follows:
- Thriller (Michael Jackson)
- Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel)
- Take On Me (A-Ha)
- Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)
- Like A Prayer (Madonna)
- Rock DJ (Robbie Williams)
- Billie Jean (Michael Jackson)
- Bittersweet Symphony (The Verve)
- Vogue (Madonna)
- Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)
Queen had only one other video in the top 100, with 'I Want To
Break Free' at number 21.
Full details of the poll and how it compares with others is
available on the Poll
Analysis - Videos page.
The
World's Greatest Gigs
This one hour and five minute programme, part of the UK Music
Hall Of Fame series, was broadcast on Channel 4 on 9 November
2005. The programme featured the top twenty concerts, as voted
for by a panel of 60 artists, journalists and industry
executives. The top 10 were concerts by:
- Queen
- Jimi Hendrix
- The Sex Pistols
- Bob Dylan
- David Bowie
- Bob Marley
- Bruce Springsteen
- U2
- The Rolling Stones
- Radiohead
Queen's performance at 'Live Aid' came top of the poll, and
the feature was approximately five minutes long, featuring
contributions from Roger, Brian, Bob Geldof, Midge Ure, Dave
Grohl (Foo Fighters), Paul Gambaccini and Henry Rollins, as well
as footage from the show. Some of the interview footage was
obviously recycled from the 2004 UK Music Hall Of Fame citations.
Brian also contributes a very short interview snippet at the end
of the feature on Jimi Hendrix.
The UK Music
Hall Of Fame
This series was broadcast on Channel 4 in October and November
2004, to select five acts from each decade from the 1950's to the
1990's to be inducted into the UK Music Hall Of Fame. Queen
appeared in the program based on 1970's acts, broadcast on 24
October 2004. The acts were selected by industry experts, and the
public were asked to vote for their favourites. The nominees
were:
- Abba
- The Sex Pistols
- Queen
- David Bowie
- Led Zeppelin
- The Bee Gees
- Pink Floyd
- Stevie Wonder
- The Clash
- Elton John
The program included clips of Queen throughout their career,
including footage from Live At Wembley 1986, Live Aid, the 46664
Concert, and various promo videos, whilst interviewees were
Richard Skinner, Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), Katie Melua, Henry
Rollins, Anastacia, Mick Rock, Eric Hall, Paul Gambaccini and
Russel Watson. The Queen citation lasted approximately 10
minutes.
Queen were the eventual winners of the 1970's program, and were
inducted into the Hall Of Fame at the Hackney Empire, London, on
the 11 November 2004. Roger and Brian received their award from
Justin & Dan from 'The Darkness', before performing 'We Will
Rock You' and 'We Are The Champions' with Paul Rodgers. They also
returned for the finale to perform 'All Right Now'. In total
Queen appear for approximately 18 minutes.
In all, ten acts were inducted into the Hall Of Fame. They were
Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard & The Shadows, The Beatles, The
Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, Queen, Madonna, Michael Jackson, U2
and Robbie Williams.
The show was broadcast three days after filming, on 14 November
2004.