Bill Bailey tells the story of Queen with rare BBC Archive and brand-new conversations from Brian May and Roger Taylor, looking back at the journey of this iconic rock band.
Bill Bailey tells the story of Queen with rare BBC Archive and brand-new conversations from Brian May and Roger Taylor, looking back at the journey of this iconic rock band.
Hosted by comedian and lifelong Queen super fan Bill Bailey, this latest installment of the ERAS series dives deep into the story of the band told through the prism of their operatic masterpiece, Bohemian Rhapsody, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2025. Bill sits down for brand-new conversations with Brian May and Roger Taylor, Queen’s legendary guitarist and drummer, who look back on their extraordinary journey, and the legacy of their most famous song.
Photo Credit: Mick Rock 1974, 2025.
In this episode of Eras: Queen, Bill Bailey tells the story of the band's most poignant and powerful chapter.
By the start of the 90s, Queen knew time was running short as Freddie Mercury was gravely ill. Instead of slowing down, they pushed forward, making another album, Innuendo, and creating the video for "These Are The Days Of Our Lives," Freddie’s final on-camera appearance. This episode explores the profound impact of Freddie's public announcement of his AIDS diagnosis, followed by his passing just 24 hours later.
The reign continues in 1992 as Brian, Roger, and John orgainse the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium. We explore the release of their album Made in Heaven in 1995 which was built around Freddie’s final vocal recordings.
Bill looks at Queen's continued legacy through the We Will Rock You musical and the Bohemian Rhapsody film. We celebrate Queen's new phase with Adam Lambert, who, alongside Brian May and Roger Taylor, continues to bring their music to life. With new interviews with Queen fans, Matt Lucas and Brittany Howard, we find out about Queen's unwavering dedication to their fans, old and new, and how their music continues to resonate across generations.
This episode of Eras: Queen, Bill Bailey explores the emotional and creative toll of fame on the band. After a breakneck pace in the previous decade, Queen quietly disappear from the spotlight in the early 80s, each member pursuing solo projects.
They return sharper with renewed clarity for their next album, The Works, culminating in their iconic Live Aid performance in 1985. A year later, Queen continue their role as global icons, performing behind the Iron Curtain in Budapest.
Now fully back in the spotlight, Queen face the quiet shadow of Freddie’s illness. Through new interviews and gems from the BBC archive, we hear from Queen in their own words as they navigated the weight of being global superstars.
Bill Bailey tells the story of Queen and in the second episode it's 1975, and Queen are on the brink of failure. With financial issues they are exhausted and overlooked, but take a huge gamble on something long, weird, and radio-unfriendly: Bohemian Rhapsody.
As the world turns to Queen we explore their evolution into stadium-shaking titans throughout the late 1970s. Through archive and new interviews, including journalist David Quantick and singer Adam Lambert, we see how Queen were on a roll with releasing albums and were performing internationally to cement their global fame.
In the early 80s, we find them embracing synths, disco, and sci-fi scores with albums The Game and the Flash Gordon soundtrack. Through their groundbreaking tour of South America, and the release of Greatest Hits we explore Queen at their height before they face burnout and are unsure of what comes next.
Bill Bailey tells the story of rock's most flamboyant and iconic band.
In the first episode of Eras: Queen, it's the late 60s, and four outsiders with academic brains collide in London. We find out how Freddie, Brian, Roger, and John were drawn together through college friendships and a shared creative vision.
In the first half of the 70s, they played college gigs and support tours, started to refine their live show and build an audience proving they could command the attention of their growing fans. From recording demos, we go with them as they recorded their first three albums, Queen, Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack.
Through rare BBC archive and new interviews from Brian May and Roger Taylor plus contributors including record executive Paul Watts, journalist Rosie Horide who followed the band in their early days and Bob Harris, an early supporter, we find out how their ascension was met with financial struggles but as a band they had a shared creative vision to take on the World.
Trevor Nelson tells the story of Reggae’s first and greatest superstar.
In Episode 3 of Eras: Bob Marley, it’s an election year - and Jamaica is rocked by political turmoil. Bob is living peacefully at his home in Kingston, but when violence comes to 56 Hope Road, his days in the city are numbered.
The next chapter of his story will cement his legacy as the King of Reggae - an icon whose impact goes far beyond music alone.
Featuring brand new interviews with friends, fans and collaborators, plus rare BBC archive.
A Cup and Nuzzle Production. Series Producer: Joe Foley
Trevor Nelson tells the story of Reggae’s first and greatest superstar.
In the second episode of Eras: Bob Marley, it’s 1972, and The Wailers find themselves in London. When a strange twist of fate puts them in front of Island Records’ Chris Blackwell, a new chapter begins for Bob, Peter and Bunny.
But under the pressure of life on the road, tensions grow between the old friends - and something has to give.
As the eyes of the world turn to Bob Marley, a golden age of Reggae begins.
Featuring brand new interviews with friends, fans and collaborators, plus rare BBC archive.
A Cup and Nuzzle Production. Series Producer: Joe Foley
Rock Star. Poet. Visionary. Peacemaker.
Trevor Nelson tells the story of Reggae’s first and greatest superstar, Bob Marley.
In the years since his death in 1981, Bob Marley has become an icon unlike any other.
In Episode One of Eras: Bob Marley, you’ll discover where his story began.
From the rural village of Nine Mile to the yards of Kingston, follow Bob’s first steps into the music industry, and his earliest encounters with the band that would make him famous - The Wailers.
Featuring brand new interviews with friends, fans and collaborators, plus rare BBC archive, you’ll get to know the man behind the music.
A Cup and Nuzzle Production. Series Producer: Joe Foley
Trevor Nelson tells the story of Reggae’s first and greatest superstar.
In the final chapter of Eras: Bob Marley, Bob’s incredible life comes to end. But his Legend is immortal.
Friends, fans and collaborators celebrate his legacy of activism, his potent spirituality and his undeniable musical accomplishments, which left the world so much richer than he found it.
A Cup and Nuzzle Production. Series Producer: Joe Foley
Rock Star. Poet. Visionary. Peacemaker.
He’s sold tens of millions of records - but his influence goes far beyond music. He’s one of the most recognisable faces on Earth - but how much do you know the man behind the smile?
As the world celebrates 80 years of Bob Marley, Trevor Nelson sits down with Cedella and Skip Marley to hear their personal takes on the enduring legend of Reggae’s first and greatest superstar.
When you’ve been in the game for as long as Sting has, it’s tempting to just keep giving the people what they want. But that’s just not him, is it?
In Episode Four, Vernon Kay finds Sting in a place in which inspiration is everything. Whether it’s a lute album, a turn on Broadway, traditional folk or Reggae, Sting refuses to be pinned down.
That’s the attitude that’s won him millions of fans, the respect of his peers, and a musical legacy that only a handful of stars can match. And in his eighth decade, he’s showing no signs of slowing down.
Through the BBC Archive and brand new interviews, you’ll understand what makes Sting truly unique.
A Cup and Nuzzle Production. Written and produced by Joe Foley.
The Police are no more. But Sting never rests on his laurels.
In Episode Three, Vernon Kay follows the first stages in a solo career spanning four decades. Embracing his origins in Jazz, and his magpie instinct for melody, Sting joins the ranks of the great British soloists. At the same time, he’ll help to forge the bond between pop music and philanthropy that still exists today.
Through the BBC archive and brand new interviews, you’ll hear how Sting embraced the new, honed his craft, and fought for a better world.
A Cup and Nuzzle Production. Written and produced by Joe Foley.
When Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers formed the Police, none of them could have predicted the phenomenon that they would become.
In Episode Two, we follow the band from the start of that journey to their world-dominating peak. In 5 years, they’ll go from grubby bars to the home of arena rock - Shea Stadium.
Along the way, they’ll produce some of the defining hits of a generation. But as Sting asserts himself as a songwriter, tensions brew… and something has to give.
Featuring rare BBC archive, expert interviews and iconic tunes, this is your window into the blend of genius and hard work that propelled Sting and the Police to the top of the charts around the globe.
A Cup and Nuzzle Production. Written and produced by Joe Foley.
Storyteller. Activist. Superstar. This is the story of Sting.
Vernon Kay is your guide to one of British music’s most individual artists.
In Episode One, you’ll hear the stories, and the music, that shaped Sting’s early life. From the terraces of Wallsend to Punk-era London, where a single phone call changed his destiny forever.
Told in Sting’s own words through the BBC archive, and featuring brand new interviews with friends, fans and collaborators, you’ll get to know the man behind the name.
A Cup and Nuzzle Production. Written and produced by Joe Foley.
After establishing themselves as one of music’s pop giants, the ABBA legacy continues in an exciting new chapter - ABBA Voyage. The futuristic and visually groundbreaking show ignites a new love for ABBA, once again.
In Episode 5, Sara Cox sits down with the producers of ABBA Voyage - Svana Gisla and Ludvig Andersson (who is also Benny from the band’s son) to discuss how the concept came about, and what really went into creating one of the most talked-about shows of the last decade.
As Svana and Ludvig give us an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at ABBA in the studio, and Sara Cox also digs into what might be on the cards for ABBA in the future.
It’s 1979, and ABBA are one of the world’s most famous bands. But beneath their successful surface, things are changing.
In Episode 3, Sara Cox follows the band to the peak of their career. As ABBA release some of their most iconic and sophisticated music, their personal relationships come under incredible strain. The band play on - but how long can they really last?
Through the BBC Archive and brand new interviews, we chronicle the beginning of the end for the masters of the scene.
They’re famous for their marriages, divorces, and impossibly perfect pop songs.
But how much do you really know about ABBA?
In this series, Sara Cox is your guide to Sweden’s biggest musical export.
When Benny, Bjorn, Agnetha and Anni-Frid won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, their lives changed forever. But that win didn’t come easy.
Because the road to Waterloo is a long one. It took years of hard work, and the combination of four world-class talents - each of them already successful in their own right - to pull it off.
Through the BBC’s archive and new interviews with experts and insiders - as well as the group’s timeless back catalogue - you’ll get to know ABBA like never before.
With Waterloo, ABBA became an international act. But in the aftermath, they were almost written off as one-hit wonders.
In Episode 2 of ABBA: Eras, Sara Cox tells the story of how the group pulled themselves back from the brink of obscurity - and found legions of new fans a very long way from Sweden.
Featuring rare BBC archive material, expert interviews and lashings of ABBA’s indelible pop, this is your window into the musical genius and sheer perseverance that brought ABBA to their rightful place at the top.
After a wildly successful but grueling decade, ABBA were no more. Their ‘indefinite hiatus’ allowed each member of the group to follow their own path. But nothing lasts forever - not even endings.
In Episode 4, Sara Cox tells the story of a comeback like no other.
From pop history’s greatest Greatest Hits, to theatrical smashes, Hollywood acclaim and futuristic entertainment experiences, ABBA have achieved a truly timeless legacy.
Through the BBC Archive and brand new interviews, you’ll understand exactly why.
If you’re in the biggest band there ever was, how do you cope when it all comes crashing down? That’s the question John, Paul, George and Ringo were asking themselves in the spring of 1970, when it was announced that The Beatles were breaking up for good.
In part five, Martin Freeman arrives at the end of an era - and the start of four more. In the aftermath of the split, bitter recriminations give way to new beginnings, and each individual Beatle embarks on a successful solo career. Rumours of a reunion swirl, before a senseless act of violence seems to draw a line under their story as a unit.
But a band like The Beatles never goes away - it lives forever in the people who love it... and this is a story that never really ends.