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 minutes
Freddie Mercury - Magic Remixed : first shown on ITV4 on 15 September 2006, length 60 minutes


Produced by Matt Cain
Executive producers Melvyn Bragg and Gillian Greenwood
Narrated by Craig Kelly

These are two programmes which take Freddie's 18 years of musical creativity, cast most of it aside, and instead look at his sexuality and how it allegedly influenced everything he ever did. They are essentially the same programme, but 'Magic Remixed' is a longer version, with some additional footage and interviews. Unfortunately, they never made 'Magic Edited' which would have been a much better alternative.

It features new interviews with Roger Taylor, Freddie's mum and sister Jer Bulsara and Kashmira Cooke, Montserrat Caballe, his longterm boyfriend Jim Hutton, 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.

Altogether this is a very poor programme, which concentrates on Freddie's sexuality and illness rather than his musical output. 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 overall content.

Part One : General overview

• 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 : early life in Zanzibar and India, travelling to England, his sexuality, parties and drugs

• 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, with 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 : Freddie's home life, illness and death

• 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 : how Queen music lives on, and how Freddie's career may have continued had he lived on

• 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

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