Brian May is to host a BBC show that explores his work in the field of bovine tuberculosis (bTB), an infectious disease that can have devastating effects on cattle populations.
The Queen guitarist has spent years campaigning against the controversial policy of badger culling, the traditional method of slowing the spread of bTB. The show, called Brian May: The Badgers, The Farmers And Me, highlights a four-year project in which May works to eradicate the disease without harming the badger population.
“I don’t blame people for being suspicious of me in the beginning, because, you know, I’m a guitarist,” says May. “You know I’m a rock star. What am I doing? Why would I have some contribution to make?
“I came in to save the badgers. I now realise that to save the badgers, you have to save everybody because it’s a mess. It’s a tragic human drama where people’s hearts are broken.”
In the show, May works with vet Dick Sibley and farmer Robert Reed – whose farm was chronically infected with bTB – to declare the property free of the disease without harming the badger population. He now hopes to convince the larger farming community that he has pinpointed the “real source” of bTB spread, and that they should take his finding seriously and change policy accordingly.
May, who co-founded the Save Me Trust, an animal welfare organisation, in 2009, has previously said that Queen won’t play the UK’s Glastonbury Festival because its host, farmer Michael Eavis, is supportive of the cull.
“We won’t [play Glastonbury] and there are a lot of reasons for that,” he said last year. “One of them is that Michael Eavis has frequently insulted me, and I don’t particularly enjoy that. What bothers me more is that he’s in favour of the badger cull.”
Brian May: The Badgers, The Farmers And Me will air Friday 23 August on BBC Two and BBC Two Wales at 9pm.