40 years ago this week, Bohemian Rhapsody topped the UK chart for the first time. It would stay there for nine weeks, then return for five more at the end of 1991. And to celebrate, comedy legend and part-time Queen documentarian Rhys Thomas has made another documentary for his favourite band.

Reuniting with Simon Lupton, with whom the Fast Show and Bellamy’s People veteran made the award winning Queen: Days of Our Lives and Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender documentaries, as well as producing various dvd releases for Queen since 2001 and 2003’s Greatest Video Hits, Thomas has made an hour length show entitled Queen: From Rags to Rhapsody which will air on BBC Four later this month.

Digging deep into the archives to tell the story of Queen as a struggling band gigging at pubs and colleges, through to the moment they broke the UK with one of the greatest songs of all time, the documentary features recently unearthed rushes of their first ever music video shoot in 1973, and unreleased out-takes from the recording sessions of Bo Rhap himself.

Also on hand are unreleased interviews with the band conducted in 1977 by Bob Harris, their first ever TV interview from 1975 which was recently discovered in Australia and their 1975 Top of the Pops performance of Now I’m Here which was missing believed wiped until very recently.

With live performance footage from various shows, and also promising no talking heads, no random DJs and no hangers on, this is the unique story of early Queen told by the band.

You can see the results on Friday 18th December at 10pm only on BBC Four. Rhys and Simon’s previous documentaries – Days of Our Lives and The Great Pretender – are available on dvd and blu-ray now.