Boybands Forever | Preview (BBC Two)

Produced by award-winning Mindhouse Productions and from BAFTA-winning producers Louis Theroux and Nancy Strang, Boybands Forever (3 x 60”) tells the inside story behind the success of some of the UK and Ireland’s most celebrated popstars during the 90s and early 00s.

Featuring searingly honest interviews with the artists themselves, as well as the music label bosses and managers behind their ascent to fame, the series is a thoughtful look at the boyband phenomenon of that time and the cultural landscape it emerged from.

Episode one begins in 1990, as poll tax rioters are setting the nation’s capital ablaze and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is being ousted by her own MPs. Welcome distraction comes in the twinkly-eyed form of a pop phenomenon which will define the decade: the boyband.

Taking a cue from the all-singing, all-dancing American pop act New Kids on the Block, the UK’s Take That and East 17 would dance and shimmy their way through the British pop charts in the first half of the decade, clearing the way for a long conga line of other handsome, crooning hunks.

Manchester theatrical agent Nigel Martin-Smith sees a new sexual confidence being expressed by nineties women, with The Chippendales gracing daytime television and Page 7 fellas setting pulses racing.

Inspired to create a pop equivalent, he sets about putting together a group of handsome singer-dancers, including budding theatrical hopeful Robbie Williams, aspiring male model Mark Owen, and composing prodigy Gary Barlow.

Two hundred miles away in East London, the band who will become Take That’s biggest rivals, East 17 – four school pals who shared a similar love of rave and hip hop - explode into the charts with their debut single, House of Love.

Tony Mortimer writes the songs, Terry Coldwell and John Hendy provide the dance moves, but it’s the sweet soulful voice of Brian Harvey which melts teenage hearts across the land. Signed by Tom Watkins, the man behind Pet Shop Boys and Bros, they are marketed as the urban bad boys to counter Take That’s more clean-cut image.

The two bands fight it out for chart dominance between 1992 and 1996 against a backdrop of huge change in Britain, as Tony Blair launches New Labour and Britpop changes the musical landscape forever.

Take That embark on a nationwide tour and have eight Number One hits in the space of three years, as the hysteria among their fans goes next level. But behind the scenes, their youngest member Robbie Williams is caught up in a rivalry with bandmate Gary Barlow and kicking against the constraints of manager Nigel.

East 17 have a number one selling album - named after their hometown of Walthamstow - and in 1994 write their name into pop history when their epic ballad Stay Another Day secures the Christmas Number One slot. But behind closed doors, trouble is brewing. Some of the group’s members feel underpaid, while singer Brian and his soap-star fiancée Danniella Westbrook, who was starring in EastEnders, find themselves under increasing public scrutiny.

Within 14 months of one another, both bands would spectacularly implode amid rancour and controversy, necessitating in the case of Take That a national helpline for distraught fans, as the exhausting demands of fronting a pop phenomenon they never saw coming finally takes its toll. However, their place in pop history is undeniable and their legacy of incredible music and irreplaceable memories endure in the hearts of their fans for longer than anyone could have predicted.

Contributors include: Robbie Williams, Nigel Martin-Smith, Tony Mortimer, John Hendy, Terry Coldwell, Danniella Westbrook, Andi Peters, Jayne Middlemiss, Siân Pattenden (Smash Hits), Hannah Verdier (Smash Hits) and Michael Cragg (music journalist/author).

Boybands Forever begins Saturday 16th November on BBC Two.