BBC Pop Music TV announces new BBC Two series, Boybands Forever – Music News

Today, BBC Pop Music TV announces Boybands Forever (3×60″), a new series for BBC Two examining the inside story of boy band mania in the 90s and 00s, set to air in Autumn 2024.

Produced by award-winning Mindhouse Productions (Louis Theroux Interviews, Lockerbie, Gods of Tennis) and BAFTA-winning producers Louis Theroux and Nancy Strang, the three hour-long episodes will delve into the pop culture of the 90s and 00s, telling the stories behind the success of some of the UK and Ireland’s most famous pop stars, idolised by millions of pop fans around the world. Each episode will follow the life-changing reality of a newly-minted celebrity at a young age, from their early days to their chart-topping moment, while revealing some of the key behind-the-scenes moments that shaped their career and reflecting on the era decades later.

The series will feature searingly honest interviews with the artists themselves, who share their experiences of the boy band phenomenon, including Robbie Williams (Take That), Brian McFadden (Westlife), as well as members of East 17, Blue, Five, 911 and Damage.

Over the course of the episodes, the series will hear from the record label bosses and band managers who managed their rise to fame, including Simon Cowell (RCA Records), Nigel Martin-Smith (Take That), Louis Walsh (Westlife), Daniel Glatman (Blue), Chris Herbert (Five) and Steve Gilmour (911), as well as the band members’ friends, music industry insiders, presenters and journalists who followed their stories in an era before social media.

With their testimony, their rich archive of the period and the music so adored by millions of fans in the UK and around the world, it promises a nostalgic journey and a thoughtful look at the cultural landscape from which it emerged.

Louis Theroux, Executive Producer, said: “I couldn’t be more excited about this series. An epic story featuring a cast of stars and star-makers, spanning three decades, involving some of the icons of modern British pop. We see them through their highs and lows, listening to the key players, as we chart the golden years of boy bands. How they came together, the experience of sudden fame, the opportunities and temptations that came their way, the conflicts within the bands, between the bands and between the boys and their managers. It’s a gripping fable about getting everything you dreamed of, and it’s not what you thought it would be, centred on a generation of young men and their managers, who have experienced wild success and also immense vulnerability, who have had the time of their lives and in some cases, who have also fallen apart.” Those boys we all saw singing and dancing in tight formation – Take That, East 17, Westlife, Blue, Five, Damage, 911 and so many more – are now middle-aged men with the time and maturity to look back and reflect. “It took us over a year to make the series. Now I can’t wait for people to see it.”

Jonathan Rothery, Director of BBC Popular Music TV, said: “It feels like yesterday, but the era of Brit Boybands began 35 years ago, and it was a fascinating moment in time and pop culture. The series will take us back in time, but also illuminate the fact that behind the singing, dancing, double jeans and bright smiles, there was a lot of blood, sweat and tears.”

Boybands Forever is a Mindhouse production for BBC Pop Music TV and BBC Two. It was commissioned by Jonathan Rothery, Director of Popular Music TV. The Editor-in-Chief of BBC Popular Music TV is Rachel Davies. The Executive Producers are Nancy Strang and Louis Theroux for Mindhouse.

The new commission for Mindhouse follows the success of BBC Two’s Grierson Award-nominated ‘Gods of Snooker’, as well as ‘God of Tennis’, documenting the sport’s golden age, and the critically acclaimed ‘Space Shuttle That Fell to Earth’; as well as Sky’s ‘Lockerbie’, which won this year’s BAFTA for Best Factual Series.