Take That: If there’s one thing that comes to mind the most about them, the day Robbie Williams left the band to step out on his own, was the same day I changed jobs to something else that I did for quite some time.
I wonder who had the better career after that? (Clue: It was him)
I’ve never bought a single or album of theirs, nor would I see the band in concert, but sometimes a documentary can still make for a fascinating watch, and this is definitely that.
Although I saw their rise and fall over the initial years, you can see just how much Gary Barlow dominated the band, because he wrote all the songs – bar the occasional cover, such as It Only Takes a Minute, for which Barlow was unhappy about it being their first hit, as it wasn’t an original song of his.
Plus, when Robbie Williams left, in 1995, that came about from him feeling like Barlow was pushed too much to the front of the band, whilst everyone else were glorified back-up dancers. He also had way too much energy and individuality to be pigeon-holed, and vented his frustrations with care-free appearances on shows like TGI Friday, being asked by Chris Evans what he thought of then-former manager Nigel Martin-Smith, then picked up a knife and repeatedly stabbed a big, steak pie.
However, there’s room for humour early on, with clips from iTV’s The Hit Man and Her, which I remember from back in the day, but not from when this lot were on. That said, I was paying more attention to Michaela Strachan 😉
Plus, Gary Barlow hated the BDSM-style outfits they had to wear in gay clubs, and you could say for the video for their first single, Do What U Like, they made a bit of an arse of themselves… because they had their naked bums on display!
Still, when you get to be No.1 with every single for some time, where do you go from there?
I was never a fan of Barlow, though. He always came across as arrogant and needed a good talking to, and so after his first album, Open Road, being a success, but his second being a flop, he appeared on BBC1 – on something akin to the equivalent of The One Show at the time – moaning about being on his arse, creatively. I laughed like a drain!
There was also a Blur Vs Oasis-style hoo-hah over the late 1997 competition between solo singles for both Barlow and Robbie Williams, but fame and success would be scant for the rest of the quintet.
Obviously, in more recent times, Take That mostly got back together – even with Robbie joining for a time, and Mr Williams, himself, had a film about his life – Better Man – in cinemas at the end of 2024, and has just beaten The Beatles, of all bands, by having more albums go to No.1, with Britpop making No.16.
But if I could ask one question of everything to do with Take That, I’d love to ask some of those girls, who were sobbing, “I love you, Mark!!!”, etc, what they think, today, 30 years on from the band’s initial split.
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
Take That is on Netflix from today.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but when it is, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 50-55 minutes per episode (3 episodes)
Release date: January 27th 2026
Studio: Netflix
Format: 1.78:1 (some archive clips in 4:3)
Director: David Soutar
Cast (as themselves):
Robbie Williams
Gary Barlow
Mark Owen
Jason Orange
Howard Donald
Nigel Martin-Smith
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.