Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury, originally named Faroukh Bulsara, grew up in India and moved to Britain in 1964 to work for a time in Heathrow airport.

Initially a vocalist in a band called Wreckage, Mercury joined Queen in 1971. At this point the band was made up of ex-Smile members Brian May on guitar and Rodger Taylor on drums. John Deacon answered an advert in the music press to become the band's bassist.

Their early career saw them release the poorly received album 'Queen' in 1973, and go on tour extensively, supporting Mott the Hoople.

Their second album, 'Queen 2', gave them their first hit single: 'Seven Seas Of Rye'. They gradually found a loyal audience in a difficult time for music; Freddie made a charismatic front man and the band worked together as a skilful team.

'Sheer Heart Attack' and 'A Night At The Opera' followed, the former bearing 'Killer Queen', the latter 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. This epic song was a record breaker, remaining the longest running number one for twenty years.

Mercury wrote the catchy number 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love', from the album 'The Game', released in 1980, the same year that the band penned the score to 'Flash Gordon'.

Mercury's solo work included material for the soundtracks to 'Electric Dreams' and 'Metropolis'. His version of 'The Great Pretender' was a hit in 1987. He recorded an album and single, 'Barcelona', with opera diva Montserrat Caballe, for the Barcelona Olympics.

The group worked together again on 'The Miracle' and 'Innuendo', which was the last material to be released before Freddie's tragic death from AIDS in November 1991. He only admitted he was suffering from the virus the day before his death.

On 22 November 1991, Mercury had called Queen's manager Jim Beach over to his Kensington home, to discuss a public statement. The next day, 23 November, the following announcement was made to the press:

"Following the enormous conjecture in the press over the last two weeks, I wis

BetaSeries' opinion

Secrets d'histoire Season 20 Finale: Stéphane Bern's Messalina Episode Ends a Season About Reputations on Trial

Twenty seasons in, "Secrets d'histoire" can still surprise its audience. The Season 20 finale aired on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, at 9:10 p.m. on France 3, and Stéphane Bern closed the season with one of the most notorious women of antiquity: Messalina, the third wife of Emperor Claudius. If you watched it, you already know it was more than a parade of Roman scandal. It was a careful re-examination of a woman whose name has been shorthand for depravity for almost two thousand years. If you haven't caught up yet, this debrief shows why the episode, and the whole season, deserves a place in your watchlist.

A finale that puts history's verdict on trial

The question at the centre of the finale was simple: does Messalina deserve the brutal nickname history gave her? Roman writers handed down a woman driven by insatiable desire and a hunger for power. Bern's team took that portrait apart piece by piece. They asked who wrote the story, why they wrote it, and what they gained from it. This is the series at its best. It doesn't simply retell a legend. It looks into how the legend was made. Messalina's world gave the episode plenty of drama: Caligula, Nero, Agrippina and the freedman Narcissus all appear, each with their own agenda in the deadly politics of the Julio-Claudian court. Without spoiling anything for latecomers, the finale's real emotional pull comes from the gap between the caricature and the young woman caught up in a machine much bigger than she was.

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