Twenty years after the death of rock’s most famous singer, and with a lavish book of rare photographs about to be published, his mother, Jer Bulsara, talks to The Telegraph's Angela Levin about how she coped with his transformation from Farrokh Bulsara to FREDDIE MERCURY. An excerpt from the interview follows:

Within a couple of years of Freddie’s death, there were significant medical advances in the treatment of HIV and Aids. Some believe that if he had lasted a little longer his life could have been saved.

Mrs Bulsara has a more philosophical approach. “It was a very sad day when he died in November 1991, but according to our religion when it is the right time you cannot change it. You have to go. God loved him more and wanted him with Him and that is what I keep in my mind. No mother wants to see her son die, but, at the same time, he has done more for the world in his short life than many people could do in 100 years.

“After he died my husband and I missed him so much we decided to move to Nottingham, where Kashmira was living with her husband, Roger, so we could be close to our two grandchildren. I have settled in and I am happy up here. I take great comfort today in all the things that happen around Freddie. There are so many tribute bands and I have been about six times to see We Will Rock You [the Queen musical in London].

“I was also very happy with the Freddie For A Day event,” she adds.

Read more at this location.

On September 25th, Eagle Rock Entertainment will release of the Freddie Mercuty DVD and Blu-ray, The Great Pretender. Check out the official below:

Created by the same team behind the widely acclaimed Queen: Days of Our Lives BBC documentary, The Great Pretender, in similar vein, presents a compelling insight into its subject matter, unearthing previously undiscovered or rarely seen footage and presented for the first time in High Definition.

Produced and directed by Rhys Thomas, life-long Queen fan and expert (to the extent that Rhys famously broke the Mastermind all time record points score with a specialist subject of Queen), Rhys has this time turned his attention to the Freddie archive, going back as early as 1976 in search of vintage gems which reveal more than ever before the inside story of Freddie’s life and career and the solo projects he worked on outside of Queen.

The extensive archive footage is drawn from rare interviews with Freddie, concerts, video shoots and personal material, much of it being seen for the first time, along with newly filmed contributions from fellow Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor, Queen manager Jim Beach, soprano Montserrat Caballé, composers David Arnold and Mike Moran, lyricist Tim Rice, comedian and lifelong fan Matt Lucas and many more.

From it emerges a portrait of a man who was very different to his flamboyant onstage public persona.

Among the treasures to be anticipated, The Great Pretender includes for the first time ever Freddie and ROD STEWART singing their demo for 'Take Another Piece of My Heart', an unreleased song from 1984, a snippet of the unreleased MICHAEL JACKSON / Freddie Mercury collaboration 'There Must Be More To Life Than This', and Freddie with the Royal Ballet 1979 – never seen in full before.

Rhys, whose extensive scouting for lost material turned up a copy of the band’s first TV appearance among the belongings of late comedian Dick Emery, brings to the light Freddie’s earliest filmed interview from 1976 unearthed in Australia and another unseen interview from 1976 filmed by NBC in the USA.

Rhys also found 10 cans of Freddie’s 39th Black and White birthday party in Mrs. Henderson’s nightclub in Munich in 1985. Originally filmed for the video for 'Living On My Own', and promptly banned by Freddie’s record company because of its cross-dressing theme, there’s much to be enjoyed in watching Freddie and his friends go full out in their efforts to help Freddie celebrate his last birthday before turning 40.

On top of this, The Great Pretender has a feast of outtakes from the video shoots for 'I Want To Break Free', 'One Vision', 'Days of Our Lives', 'I Want It All', 'A Kind Of Magic', 'Princes of the Universe', 'Living on My Own', 'Born To Love You', 'Great Pretender', 'Made In Heaven' and 'Who Wants to Live Forever'.

As bonus features (that will not make up part of the version to be broadcast by the BBC) the program includes Freddie Mercury Goes Solo and an extended interview with MONTSERRAT CABALLE.

Coinciding with the release of The Great Pretender DVD will come the release of the new Barcelona: Special Edition album with Freddie and Montserrat’s original album re-recorded with full 80 piece orchestra [a feature on the making of this album is included on both formats] and a new book, also entitled The Great Pretender with matching artwork, in September.

Complete details can be found at this location. Watch the making of the album clip below: