Sure there are several bits of footage and also audio sound bites that have been used again, but overall it's a much different and much more enjoyable program. I even found Pete Waterman's narration to be far less irritating that I imagined it would be!

The Mamma Mia anniversary stuff is wonderful, and given that I didn't get there in person I'll admit to getting a little emotional while watching it!

Also got a kick out of spotting Sara and Paul in the crowd during the red carpet stuff :-)

However, nobody seems to have mentioned the GLARING and rather puzzling error - what the fuck happened to 1982? According to the makers, ABBA split up at the end of 1981, to reform the following year JUST to sing Thank You For The Music one last time on TV (Nöjesmaskinen) no mention at all of The Day Before You Came, Under Attack or The Singles album.

Very, VERY ODD!

Markaholic.

Mark Walton Chester England

I would hazard a guess that this "break up in 1981/reunion to sing Thank You For The Music" story has been shoved together by a combination of Björn's "recollections" that ABBA broke up in 1981 (which he's said in many interviews in recent years), combined with this piece of footage that they had of ABBA singing Thank You For The Music dated 1982.

To think, they could have made this program so much better this time, with so many more resources available to them. Instead, it seems it's the same old shit with a different smell. Though I understand that it's slightly less of a big sell for Mamma Mia! than The Winner Takes It All was. Emphasis on *slightly* less ;-)

No offence to our British friends, but why is it that the British can never do anything properly when it comes to ABBA? It's always half-arsed and half-baked(thinking of ABBA Gold, the 1997 remasters, the fact that they seem to think just writing ABBA with the first B reversed is an ABBA logo, these "official" documentaries, hundreds of crappy compilations...)

Ian Cole Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

At times I'd forget that I WASN'T watching The Winner Takes it All. If anything I found myself wondering if they would ever get to the 5th anniversary footage instead of going on and on about the history of ABBA. But it was refreshing to see some new footage interspersed with the footage that I think I've seen for the millionth time (oh no, it's "Agnetha's Bottom" again). I enjoyed how they also mixed flashbacks with present-day footage, especially .

It was of course sad to hear how the pressure of ABBA affected Agnetha in her relationships with Bjorn and the children. And then to hear The Winner Takes it All brought a tear to my eye (as it often does). I also did not like how Agnetha was portrayed in the program as a "deserter", for lack of a better word.

I'd also like to add that Frida looks better and better every time I see her (even if it's the same pictures?). Seeing her backstage singing along to Dancing Queen was a short but wonderful moment. And when she walked on stage after all those years (I'll forgive the shoe thing), the tears flowed again. Alas, if only there were four instead of three.

All in all, Super Troupers was "OK". However, I eagerly await October 26.

Jason Feng (now about to watch ABBA the Movie on Bravo) in Vancouver, Canada

Marcus Tustin London, UK

Well, the main problem, I think, is a lack of any real substance. Sure the interviews are nice, and the ABBA-The Movie footage looks fantastic, but the program doesn't really add to anything that was said in The Winner Takes It All.

A 90 minute show should be enough time to give a lot of detail, but in this case too much time is given to the clips, which may sound sacrilegious, but lets face it we've got all these clips elsewhere.

One thing that really pissed me off was that the 1986 reunion, where they sang Tivedshambo, was totally ignored. According to this show, ABBA split in 1982 and haven't been seen together publicly since.

Oh well, I suppose the public at large will enjoy it.

We ABBA fans are so difficult to please, aren't we?

Andre Hyde London, UK.

But what made me laugh is that he suddenly said, "My god, doesn't Michael Tretow look like Angela Lansbury?".

If have to admit....he DOES!

Alex Jones Swansea, UK

More than anything, the thing that made my heart ache was discovering that the hotel room had been booked for Agnetha, as well as ABB. It seems obvious that they didn't know themselves whether she was going to show up which means that stuff about 'working in the studio' was the crap we all knew it was. Somehow I couldn't imagine Agnetha facing the crowds that day. You can all see what it was like in the footage, and as someone who was there I can tell you it was even more highly charged in real life. I wonder if she pissed the others off? Frida seemed very sad at Agnetha's absence and I don't blame her. You can see she was re-living a special time in her life. There was a faraway look in her eyes and for the first time in modern footage I felt I was seeing the old ABBA 'unit'. That sort of single entity they all became when giving interviews. Of course, as usual Benny managed to sound dismissive while sounding enthusiastic. He really does annoy me when he puts it down and never seems to say how much fun it was. God, even Agnetha has acknowledged that point despite how traumatic she found things back then. I can accept it was just a ten year period a long time ago in his life, and of course you should move on and continue to grow, but let's not dismiss a period which was so defining.

Anyway, I'll be buying the DVD. Maybe not so much for the extra footage but because it was a bit like having a reunion with myself, the one that was around twenty years ago.

Cliff Docherty Wembley UK

Graham Piper, Hove, England.

Love you all Clive (with assistance from his beau) Hollywood Florida USA

I did enjoy it. I wish the bits from the 'Winner Takes It All' had been omitted, but you can't have everything. I most certainly had not seen the clip of Frida singing 'Baby Love' before. God the hairstyle! And possibly a couple of other clips also.

Every time Frida was chatting I found myself smiling. I am sure everyone is aware that up until buying 'Djupta Andetag' a few years ago I was an Agnetha obsessive. But after hearing Frida's CD, things changed, big style. I found myself hanging on the edge of the settee for the next Frida clip. It is obvious that Frida is very very proud of what ABBA achieved. Bjorn is just out for every penny he can get. I think that Benny should remember that ABBA paid for the lifestyle he has today, so that he van just plod around doing what he wants. Agnetha - I understand exactly where she is coming from. And I have to agree that she looked so uncomfortable in a lot of situations. And sometimes quite upset. I think that Agnetha feels that ABBA split her family up. But I think the type of bloke that Bjorn is, they would never have stayed together. He is very very intelligent. Agnetha, well she isn't is she. Two very very different people. You get the feeling that Bjorn didn't particularly care about leaving Linda and Christian at home. As a mother I couldn't do that. And I would totally resent my hubby for expecting me to.

I do believe that Frida did look upset that Agnetha wasn't there. I think at the end, Frida and Agnetha did get a little fed up with each other. They were only thrown together because of their boyfriends. Again two totally different people. I think that Frida is far easier going than Agnetha (She an Aries like me!!!). I think Frida would have liked the companionship of Agnetha there. You know the other girl.

Well I have waffled on enough. Hope I haven't bored you all to much.

Take care and bye for now.

Helen

Helen Middlemas Peterhead Scotland

Supplied the fans with an hour and a half documentary at prime time on a major channel.

Supplied the fans with brand new, never seen before clips/interviews with 3 members of ABBA.

Supplied the fans with outtakes from the Agnetha interviews.

Supplied the fans with rare footage of the band in the early days.

I mean, come on ITV. When are you going to get your act together and give us something we don't already know? How about footage of Agnetha and Benny banging away backstage!!!!!!!!!!!

For fuck's sake. This was fantastic TV.

And BTW, I haven't seen the DVD, but the TV program did not state that ABBA split in 1981. Nor did it state that Thank You For The Music was performed for the last time in 1982.

They merely pointed out that the last time ABBA performed together was when they sang Thank You For The Music at a friend's party and then they, helpfully, showed a clip of THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC from 1982 - since no clip exists of the more recent performance.

I remember a decade when ABBA were practically banned from radio and TV. It was called the eighties. And now look at us: ripping apart brand new footage of a band that split 20 years ago. Sheesh!

Jonathan Gatsby, Kent, UK

Micke Tretow states that 'there was never any decision that time was up for ABBA... it just sort of faded out'

We then cut to ABBA performing "Thank You For The Music" in 1982, with the subtitles saying 'at the end of 1981 ABBA announced they would break up'.

Doesn't this directly contradict what Micke just said?

Pete Waterman then states: 'although ABBA had already split, they got together for one last time to sing Thank You For The Music'. He goes on to say that the proposed 6 April 2004 reunion is the first time that ABBA will have been seen together in public since this 'final' performance of THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC.

When you are broadcasting a major documentary such as this on prime-time television, you check your facts thoroughly. You then double-check your facts again until you are completely sure they are accurate. There is just no excuse for these kinds of major errors to creep into this level of TV production. Of course, it is the case that people who put together programs such as this are not necessarily people who know ABBA inside out as those of us on this mailing list do. But it's not that difficult to check your facts with a solid reference work on the subject (e.g. Bright Lights, Dark Shadows) or by consulting someone who actually might know about the subject.

Paul Carter London, UK

>So, what have the Brits done?

>Made a documentary where the history of ABBA is related in a half-arsed fashion, where the most knowledgeable person who had any >input into the program seems to have been Björn - and *everyone* knows that he knows *nothing* about ABBA. Meanwhile, >Universal Music has an "ABBA consultant" on their books who was not consulted. Nor was the wide circle of fans who might have been >able to add some valuable input. And the production company is well aware of the fans - they *did* seek some input last time (but >again, not from UM's consultant).

>I mean, come on ITV. When are you going to get your act together and give us something we don't already know? How about footage of Agnetha and Benny banging away backstage!!!!!!!!!!!

ITV had nothing to do with it, aside from screening it. Like The Winner Takes It All, it was produced by Iambic Productions on behalf of Littlestar - the company owned by the Bs and that Cramer woman to produce the musical Mamma Mia!

And it's not about giving us something we don't know or footage we haven't seen - it's about getting the fucking story right!

>They merely pointed out that the last time ABBA performed together was when they sang THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC at a friend's party and then they, helpfully, showed a clip of THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC from 1982 - since no clip exists of the more recent performance.

Paul Carter has already responded in great detail to this bit. But essentially, that *is* the claim that's made.

BTW, ABBA did *not* sing Thank You For The Music at anyone's birthday party or on any other occasion since 1982 - they've sung Tivedshambo, a modified version of Der Kleine Franz (or whatever the fucker's called) and Med en enkel tulipen at their various "reunions". See how easy it is to corrupt history due to misinformation being spread in TV programs like this?

>I remember a decade when ABBA were practically banned from radio and TV. It was called the eighties. And now look at us: ripping apart brand new footage of a band that split 20 years ago. Sheesh!

Lovie, I'm not pulling it apart, though others may well be. I'm lamenting that, as usual, it seems to be so much less than it could have been, with even just a little fact checking.

Ian Cole Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

The footage of everyone outside the Prince Edward Theatre is good to see, and Mark Hannam is on film receiving an autograph from Benny, plus lots of other familiar faces in the crowd.

However, as Mark W pointed out, there's this very badly-researched comment about ABBA announcing their break-up, and that they got together for one last time to perform "Thank You For The Music" in 1982. Couldn't they have asked someone to check their facts? It also seems to rather contradict what Micke T says in his recycled interview from 1999 that ABBA just faded away. There's also rather a misleading implication that the "Baby Love" clip is the first time Frida appeared on TV that they talk about just prior to showing the clip.

I haven't watched "The Winner Takes It All" documentary for ages, but it seemed to me that there were bits of Agnetha reading from her book that we hadn't heard before - if this is the case, they are presumably outtakes from that project.

The extras are rather good - the full April 6 finale - we see Frida's backstage reaction when Bjorn announces that there is a very special lady backstage, the whole shoe incident and Frida's dance routine right at the end.

The angle you see it quite a lot of it from would almost make you think it was filmed by someone in the audience!

Definitely the best part is the extensive interview with Frida, which must be the best ever English-language interview she has made. The most interesting is when she talks about her favourite ABBA songs and besides "Dancing Queen" she mentions "The King Has Last His Crown" as being a particular favourite.

A couple more quotes from Frida:

"It's nice to meet your fans face to face occasionally as well and if I can make them happy by signing some autographs, then I'm fine..."

"I felt being on stage at the Mamma Mia! thing, I felt it was like a farewell to the time that has been with myself involved with ABBA. I felt that this is a very happy moment to say goodbye, now the baby is 30 years old, it can lead a life of its own, I don't have to be there the whole time...ABBA will always be a big part of my life.. it has put a great print on my life. But everything has its time and I think now I will just feel happy about what was."

Paul Carter London, UK

>I guess I watched a different documentary to our Aussi pals. (Presumably they've seen it!)

Unfortunately, we haven't seen it yet, but we've read many, many detailed reports from those of you that have over the past few days (actually, back to about a week or so ago!). Almost all of them have made similar comments - almost all of them have reported the "ABBA announced toke up in 1981/reformed in 1982 to sing Thank You For The Music" story.

>Every ABBA related program since time began is frustrating to watch because it never gives each individual fan exactly what they want.

I don't think that "each individual fan" gets "frustrated" by not getting "exactly what they want" (though there are those that bitch and moan if something they've seen is included, and something they haven't seen isn't, or if every available piece of footage isn't used, or if it tells the ABBA story that they know rather than some secret previously unknown history that just doesn't exist). But I'm sure they'd all like to see something of quality that gets the story right.

>But as TV goes, there is no disputing the fact, this was fantastic.

I'll reserve judgment tomorrow night.

>Now, there wouldn't be a tinsy wincy bit of jealousy in the air owing to the fact that no mailers were asked to contribute, would there?

Not in the least. Personally, I couldn't give a flying fuck about that (truth is, in 1999 I initially told them to fuck off, I wasn't interested. They hounded me for 2 months until I relented). But the producers could at the very least have consulted with the consultant that UM has in their employ for this very reason. Or just read the book - at least it would have been a more reliable version of the ABBA story than Björn's shaky recollections!

**************

I was having a think this morning after I fired off my morning post...

It seems that they (and by they, I mean the MM! mafia of Mr. Ulvaeus and Ms Cramer) are still trying to justify the Mamma Mia! musical by wrapping the ABBA story around it, when in truth MM! is really only the post script. The only reason that this program has been made, and ditto The Winner Takes It All before it, was to plug Mamma Mia! Why else do you think does the MM! logo feature prominently on the cover of both home video releases?

As far as I can tell, they could have made a lovely stand alone 5th anniversary of Mamma Mia! special, maybe half an hour or an hour long, to incorporate all that footage for B, B & F at the anniversary gala. Without the gratuitous need to make it into "an ABBA special", that aside from the anniversary footage and some new interviews, is still a rehash of the 1999 documentary.

Ian Cole Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

All the best,

Luke Sweeny,

Portsmouth, UK