Eras

Join Scott Mills for the ultimate celebration of the UK’s best-loved pop star, who this year headlines Radio 2 in the Park on Sunday 17th September.

All good things come to an end - unless you’re Kylie Minogue, apparently.

In 2012, Kylie marked 25 years in the music industry. The Abbey Road Sessions, an album of radical reworkings of some of her biggest hits, could easily have bookended a career few others could match. As it turned o...

Join Scott Mills for the ultimate celebration of the UK’s best-loved pop star, who this year headlines Radio 2 in the Park on Sunday 17th September.

Australia rings in the New Year first. But as a new millennium dawns, one of her favourite daughters is relaxing in LA. She won’t be standing still for long.

In the summer of 2000, the world entered Kylie Minogue’s third and most iconic era so far. Newly signed to a major label, she’s a...

Join Scott Mills for the ultimate celebration of the UK’s best-loved pop star, who this year headlines Radio 2 in the Park on Sunday 17 September.

The 90s are well underway, and Kylie Minogue is in uncharted territory. After splitting with powerhouse production team Stock, Aitken and Waterman, she’s joined forces with indie label Deconstruction Records, spurning the advances of a slew of record industry suits.

For Kylie, it’s an era ...

Join Scott Mills for the ultimate celebration of the UK’s best-loved pop star, who this year headlines Radio 2 in the Park on Sunday 17th September.

When a teenage Kylie lit up Aussie screens in Neighbours, the die was cast for her meteoric rise to fame. Before long, she’d launched a parallel career as a singer - and left Ramsay Street in the rear-view mirror.

After that? No prizes for guessing. Sold-out stadiums. Hollywood. Heartbre...

In the final episode of Eras: The Beatles we hear the story behind The Beatles final single ‘Now and Then’, including new interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

Narrated by Martin Freeman, the episode also features insight on the new track from Sean Ono Lennon, Olivia Harrison and Peter Jackson. In 1994, Yoko Ono gave Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr a selection of unfinished demo tapes, recorded by John L...

If you’re in the biggest band there ever was, how do you cope when it all comes crashing down?

That’s the question John, Paul, George and Ringo were asking themselves in the spring of 1970, when it was announced that the Beatles were breaking up for good.

In Part 5, Martin Freeman arrives at the end of an era - and the start of four more.

In the aftermath of the split, recriminations give way to new beginnings - and each individual Be...

When tragedy strikes at the end of 1967, the Beatles are faced with an uncertain future. In the months and years to come, cracks begin to show in the foundations of the world’s most powerful musical unit. As each member matured and developed as artists, the end became inevitable.

In Part 4 of Eras: The Beatles, Martin Freeman explores the pressures that broke the biggest band on the planet, and the incredible music that this turbule...

No high lasts forever. And in 1966, the pressures of fame begin to weigh on the globetrotting lives of John, Paul, George and Ringo. From a close-call with military police in the Philippines, to an all-out religious backlash in the United States, the band starts to question whether being a Beatle is quite so fab after all. Maybe it’s time for something new. To become a different band entirely.

In Part 3 of Eras: The Beatles, Martin...

It’s 1964. British Beatlemania is in full swing but, this summer, the Fab Four are about to go global - and nothing can stand in their way.

In Part 2 of Eras: The Beatles the band scales new heights as they enter the pop stratosphere on both sides of the Atlantic.

From silver-screen adventures to the invention of Stadium Rock, the BBC Archive team have scoured their collection for the interviews that put you right at the heart of tho...

Martin Freeman tells the story of the Fab Four’s rise, fall and rebirth - and how they changed the world along the way.

In the space of just 8 years, their journey took them from the smoky clubs of Hamburg and Liverpool, to Abbey Road and unprecedented global fame. And when their time together came to an end, each Beatle began anew - creating a body of work that’s still growing today.

As the world welcomes Now and Then - the first n...

After establishing themselves as one of music’s pop giants, the ABBA legacy continues in an exciting new chapter - ABBA Voyage. The futuristic and visually groundbreaking show ignites a new love for ABBA, once again.

In Episode 5, Sara Cox sits down with the producers of ABBA Voyage - Svana Gisla and Ludvig Andersson (who is also Benny from the band’s son) to discuss how the concept came about, and what really went into creating one...

After a wildly successful but grueling decade, ABBA were no more. Their ‘indefinite hiatus’ allowed each member of the group to follow their own path. But nothing lasts forever - not even endings.

In Episode 4, Sara Cox tells the story of a comeback like no other.

From pop history’s greatest Greatest Hits, to theatrical smashes, Hollywood acclaim and futuristic entertainment experiences, ABBA have achieved a truly timeless legacy.

T...

It’s 1979, and ABBA are one of the world’s most famous bands. But beneath their successful surface, things are changing.

In Episode 3, Sara Cox follows the band to the peak of their career. As ABBA release some of their most iconic and sophisticated music, their personal relationships come under incredible strain. The band play on - but how long can they really last?

Through the BBC Archive and brand new interviews, we chronicle the ...

With Waterloo, ABBA became an international act. But in the aftermath, they were almost written off as one-hit wonders.

In Episode 2 of ABBA: Eras, Sara Cox tells the story of how the group pulled themselves back from the brink of obscurity - and found legions of new fans a very long way from Sweden.

Featuring rare BBC archive, expert interviews and lashings of ABBA’s indelible pop, this is your window into the musical genius and she...

They’re famous for their marriages, divorces, and impossibly perfect pop songs.

But how much do you really know about ABBA?

In this series, Sara Cox is your guide to Sweden’s biggest musical export.

When Benny, Bjorn, Agnetha and Anni-Frid won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, their lives changed forever. But that win didn’t come easy.

Because the road to Waterloo is a long one. It took years of hard work, and the combination of four w...

When you’ve been in the game for as long as Sting has, it’s tempting to just keep giving the people what they want. But that’s just not him, is it?

In Episode Four, Vernon Kay finds Sting in a place in which inspiration is everything. Whether it’s a lute album, a turn on Broadway, traditional folk or Reggae, Sting refuses to be pinned down.

That’s the attitude that’s won him millions of fans, the respect of his peers, and a musica...

The Police are no more. But Sting never rests on his laurels.

In Episode Three, Vernon Kay follows the first stages in a solo career spanning four decades. Embracing his origins in Jazz, and his magpie instinct for melody, Sting joins the ranks of the great British soloists. At the same time, he’ll help to forge the bond between pop music and philanthropy that still exists today.

Through the BBC archive and brand new interviews, yo...

When Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers formed the Police, none of them could have predicted the phenomenon that they would become.

In Episode Two, we follow the band from the start of that journey to their world-dominating peak. In 5 years, they’ll go from grubby bars to the home of arena rock - Shea Stadium.

Along the way, they’ll produce some of the defining hits of a generation. But as Sting asserts himself as a songwrit...

Storyteller. Activist. Superstar. This is the story of Sting.

Vernon Kay is your guide to one of British music’s most individual artists.

In Episode One, you’ll hear the stories, and the music, that shaped Sting’s early life. From the terraces of Wallsend to Punk-era London, where a single phone call changed his destiny forever.

Told in Sting’s own words through the BBC archive, and featuring brand new interviews with friends, fans...