Channel 5 Preps Freddie Mercury, Karen Carpenter Docudramas

LONDON: ITV Studios’ Potato is producing two feature-length drama documentaries for Channel 5, one on Freddie Mercury and the other spotlighting Karen Carpenter.

Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender Revealed (1×120 min.) and Karen Carpenter: Goodbye To Love (1×120 min.) will explore the truth behind the loss of two cultural icons. The docudramas will examine their personal and professional lives and the key moments that ultimately led to the tragic deaths at the height of their respective careers. Using scripted dramatization based on firsthand accounts, rarely seen archive footage and interviews with those closest to them, both films will shed a revealing light on these much-loved icons’ stories. The new commissions follow on the success of Potato’s 2015 feature-length factual drama Whitney & Bobby: Addicted To Love.

Michael Kelpie, the executive producer and managing director of Potato, said: “There are few artists who have touched the lives of so many through their music to the extent of Freddie Mercury and Karen Carpenter. These films tell their stories in a compelling, truthful and respectful way and remind us all of how much we miss them both.”

Guy Davies, commissioning editor of factual at Channel 5, commented: “In the year that we mark the 25th anniversary of Freddie Mercury’s tragic death, these sensitively told stories will focus on two icons of our time who left their mark on millions of people across the globe.”