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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.

Major TV Features:

Less notable TV Appearances include:

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)

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:
  1. Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)
  2. Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkel)
  3. Hey Jude (The Beatles)
  4. The House Of The Rising Sun (The Animals)
  5. A Whiter Shade Of Pale (Procol Harum)
  6. Do They Know It's Christmas (Band Aid)
  7. Imagine (John Lennon)
  8. Dancing Queen (Abba)
  9. Every Breath You Take (The Police)
  10. 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:

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:

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:

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:
  1. Mel tells them all to act normally when Brian is there, so much so that they are hoovering and weight training when he arrives.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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:
  1. Imagine (John Lennon)
  2. Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)
  3. Hey Jude (The Beatles)
  4. Dancing Queen (Abba)
  5. Every Breath You Take (The Police)
  6. Stand By Me (Ben E King)
  7. The Drugs Don't Work (The Verve)
  8. Don't Look Back In Anger (Oasis)
  9. Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) (Spiller)
  10. 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:
  1. Jimi Hendrix
  2. Eric Clapton
  3. Jimmy Page
  4. Hank Marvin
  5. Brian May
  6. Pete Townshend
  7. The Edge
  8. Eddie Santana
  9. Ritchie Blackmore
  10. Johnny Marr

The feature on Brian was around 7 minutes long and included:

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:
  1. Thriller (Michael Jackson)
  2. Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel)
  3. Take On Me (A-Ha)
  4. Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)
  5. Like A Prayer (Madonna)
  6. Rock DJ (Robbie Williams)
  7. Billie Jean (Michael Jackson)
  8. Bittersweet Symphony (The Verve)
  9. Vogue (Madonna)
  10. 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:
  1. Queen
  2. Jimi Hendrix
  3. The Sex Pistols
  4. Bob Dylan
  5. David Bowie
  6. Bob Marley
  7. Bruce Springsteen
  8. U2
  9. The Rolling Stones
  10. 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:
  1. Abba
  2. The Sex Pistols
  3. Queen
  4. David Bowie
  5. Led Zeppelin
  6. The Bee Gees
  7. Pink Floyd
  8. Stevie Wonder
  9. The Clash
  10. 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.

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