All language subtitles for ABBA.The.Missing.40.Years_track3_eng

# Knowing me, knowing you
Aha...

# There is nothing we can do

# Knowing me, knowing you... #

Abba have given the world some
of the most powerful

and memorable songs in pop history.

They're legends.
They're living legends.

You know it immediately,
that style, that sound.

# Breaking up is never easy, I know,
but I have to go... #

It's very evocative.
Just gets in there somehow.

# Knowing me, knowing you,
it's the best I can do. #

Their music has stood the test
of five decades

and is celebrated the world over.

There was no hype
that they had to live up to.

They created their own hype.

But 40 years ago,
it was a different story.

The band fell apart
and Abba slipped into obscurity.

I think they were just sick
of it by that point.

Suddenly, Abba began looking
a little bit passe.

We tell a remarkable tale that spans
four decades -

how Benny and Bjorn experimented
with new music and new artists...

It was an absolute thrill.
I couldn't believe it

that we made it to number one.

..while Agnetha and Frida both
chased international solo successes.

I remember being amazed
when Phil Collins said,

"Frida from Abba has asked me
to do an album."

But their lives would be littered
with tragedy and loss.

Agnetha was going through a very
serious and dangerous situation.

She was a prisoner in her own home

for nearly two years
because of this man.

Frida had lost her daughter
after a car accident,

which was a tragic event.

In this extraordinary documentary,

we hear from the band's
close friends...

I'm not surprised that they took
a break

because they wanted
another playground.

..collaborators...

Benny told me about the project and
I thought it was really exciting.

..music industry insiders...

Seeing her back as a more mature,
confident woman

was a really beautiful thing to see.

..and stars of Mamma Mia...

They said, "Would you like to be
Meryl Streep's friend in it?"

And I said, "Yes!"

..one of the most successful
movie musicals of all time.

It was the first day,
Benny's on the piano and I said,

"Let's sing Dancing Queen!"
He's...

We look back at an
incredible journey...

They have survived everything
that the world

can possibly throw at them.

..and tell the remarkable story of
Abba's missing 40 years.

CROWD CHEERING

MUSIC: I Still Have Faith In You
by Abba

# I still have faith in you

I see now it now... #

Abba, the world's biggest-selling
pop band of all time,

are back in force
after a 40-year break.

# There was a union

# Of heart and mind... #

It's really exciting.

We've all been living off
the original stuff

from all those years ago.

What they've done is music history.

It's just the best. Abba have magic.

# We do have it in us

# New spirit has arrived... #

This announcement in September 2021
of a return album - Voyage -

and a brand-new show was the news

the world had been waiting for
for decades.

Abba are back together.

Officially. This is huge.

That was just like childlike
wish fulfilment.

I'm very surprised cos I thought
they were definitely

never going to play again.

Fans from all over the world went
wild when seeing this incredible

footage of super troopers
Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Frida,

now all in their seventies, reunited
in a studio for the first time

since they split 40 years ago.

I was really thrilled seeing
these photos.

Frida, she told me about this.

She said it was so warm
and so exciting

and a bit strange,
but yet very familiar.

It was so joyful to be together
in the studio again, the four of us.

The initial project was shrouded
in secrecy

and, at first, was only meant to be
two songs -

I Still Have Faith In You
and Don't Shut Me Down.

# A while ago, I heard the sound
of children's laughter

# Now it's quiet, so I guess
they left the park... #

One of those people entrusted
with Abba's comeback

was renowned sound engineer
Bernard Lohr.

# The sun is going down,
it's getting dark

# I realise I'm cold... #

It was Benny that told me first
about the project,

and I thought
it was really exciting.

It was a bit scary first to see
if the girls, for instance,

when they started singing,
"Will this work?"

Bjorn and Benny were sitting
in the control room

just waiting to hear them
sing together.

Emotionally, it was...yeah.

The biggest thing was when they
started singing

and it sounded so good.

# And now you see another me

# I've been reloaded, yeah

VOICES ONLY: # I'm fired up,
don't shut me down. #

Hearing their harmonies converge
for the first time

in so many years, and you thought,

"Yeah, that can only be Abba."

# Do I have it in me? #

I think it's wonderful that they are
there and that you can hear the age

of the singers and that you can hear
the maturity of them.

I felt a sense of,
like, familiarity,

which was really nice
because I'm a big fan,

so, like, hearing that, you know,
was like, "Oh!"

# New spirit has arrived... #

It's like Abba, you know?
It's still Abba, and they're back.

# The joy and the sorrow

# We have a story

# And it survived... #

You know it immediately, that style,
that that sound.

BENNY: It's been 40 years and it was
like no time had passed.

Quite amazing.

The members of Abba now look closer
than ever.

But rewind the clock
just over 40 years,

and it was a completely
different story.

Back in 1981, after almost ten years
of huge success,

Abba seemed to be
running out of steam.

The atmosphere within the group
had changed a lot by then.

There was a lot of tension
between the four of them.

I mean, they were both divorced
couples now,

and the motivation
to do something kind of faded.

The feeling was not that happy
feeling that was in the beginning

and during the whole period.

It must be personal, I think.

Bjorn and Benny have always been
very close together,

but I don't know about
the female side.

MUSIC: Sweet Dreams
by Eurhythmics

Alongside tensions within the band,

Abba's popularity was also
in decline.

# Sweet dreams are made of this

# Who am I to disagree?

# I travel the world... #

With the emergence of a new youth
culture in the early '80s,

the Swedish pop band was losing its
cool factor.

I think on every level they kind
of then seemed a little bit naff,

a little bit like they were kind
of from that previous era of music.

HE MOUTHS

Suddenly Abba began looking
a little bit passe.

And when Benny and Bjorn went back
in the studio in May 1982

for a tentative ninth album,
the internal energy had gone.

They laid down tracks, including
I'm The City, You Owe Me One

and Just Like That,
but they weren't satisfied.

It all felt very lacklustre,
so they had to scrap the idea

of a ninth album because the songs
just weren't coming.

Instead, they released a singles
double album,

ironically entitled
The First Ten Years,

which included a couple
of new releases -

Under Attack and
The Day Before You Came...

# I must have left my house at eight
because I always do... #

..a sombre track sung by Agnetha
on her own,

with a simple synthesiser melody.

# I must have read the morning paper
going into town... #

The Day Before You Came
tells it all.

You suddenly come to a song
which is brilliant.

# I must have made my desk

# Around a quarter after nine... #

But it's not Abba.

# And stopped along the way to buy
some Chinese food to go... #

It was actually slightly more
in keeping

with that kind of
dark and brooding aesthetic

that was more zeitgeist.

But coming from Abba, I think there
was just a jarring

that people didn't quite understand.

It's now held up as an Abba classic,

but, at the time, only reached
number 32 on the UK charts.

For Abba, that was like a massive
sort of failure.

# I must have gone to bed
around a quarter after ten. #

By the end of '82,
with Bjorn and Benny remarried

and Frida and Agnetha not,

tensions amongst the band members
were intolerable.

APPLAUSE

Ladies and gentlemen, all four
members of Abba.

Invited on Noel Edmonds'
Late, Late Breakfast Show

to promote their new tracks,

you could have cut the atmosphere
with a knife.

It was a difficult time
because there was not a lot

of motivation left for Abba
to continue

and Bjorn and Benny were both
fathers again.

The papers recently have been full
of stories

that you're going
to split eventually.

We're not. You're not?

No.
AUDIENCE LAUGHS

Well, they're obviously relieved to
hear it. I was just going to ask
you if that ever occurred to you,

and who would make the decision? I
mean, would it be a joint decision?

It would be. Yes, we would.

The tension, the body language is
almost unbearable.

I mean, I sort of remember it looked
strange to me at the time.

Frida looks so incredible.
She's got this punky haircut,

which is a kind of classic
post-divorce kind of gesture.

It's very telling cos body language
does not lie,

so even though with their mouths,
they're saying,

"No, we're completely together,"

actually, their behaviour is not
very together.

What I'd like to do, really, is just
ask you to publicly tell

us your favourite Abba tunes.

No, it's really a difficult decision
because, I mean,

Benny and Bjorn have written so many
good songs. Thank you. Thank you.

Yes, but you should know about
that by now!

Well, you never said that.

OK, so it's the first time.

No-one knew it then, but this
incredibly uncomfortable appearance

would be Abba's last ever
TV interview

and would mark the beginning of a
long and tumultuous 40 years apart.

By the end of 1982, Bjorn and Benny
had lost interest in composing songs

for Abba and plans for a new album
were scrapped.

For a year now, they had been
focused on a very different project,

away from Frida and Agnetha,
with top musical lyricist Tim Rice.

We were at a stage with Abba
where we felt

sort of the energy
running out slightly,

so it was time for a pause.

Bjorn and Benny decided
that things were coming to a close

before the women were aware
of what the schism was going to be

and what their plans
were going to be after that point.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

The news of Bjorn and Benny working
with another songwriting legend -

Tim Rice - got record producers
excited and soon a concept album

for a brand-new musical
called Chess,

with West End superstar
Elaine Paige, was under way.

Tim started going to and fro
Stockholm to work with them.

I remember this distinctly,

him coming back with the initial
demo tapes,

mostly played on piano synth.

Some of them were Benny
and Bjorn lala-ing along,

you know, dummy lyrics,

and they just kept on coming
one after the other.

Set during a Cold War
chess tournament

between two grandmasters
- one American, the other Soviet -

Chess tells the story of their
intense professional battle

and a personal one over two women.

And I just thought,

"Wow, this is...
This is incredible."

And it was a wonderful mix of music.

Some of them were kind of
classically operatic,

others soft rock and pop,
and even rap.

# Bangkok, oriental setting

# And the city don't know
what the city is gettin'... #

In the Abba Museum in Stockholm,
curator Ingmarie has dedicated

a whole section to
this monumental project

that Bjorn and Benny slaved
over for five years.

# Since the Tirolean Spa
had the chess boys in it... #

I'm not at all surprised
that they actually took a break

from Abba because they wanted to get
to know

another playground, which was
the musical.

They took all the good things
from Abba into the musical world.

If you listen to songs like One
Night In Bangkok, that's a pop song.

# One night in Bangkok
and the tough guys tumble

# Can't be too careful
with your company... #

It's a different concept.
It's a different challenge.

But arguably, Chess has got songs
that were probably

more suited to Abba
than anybody else.

MUSIC: I Know Him So Well
from Chess

And the most recognisable song
from Chess is another female duet

featuring Elaine Paige
and Barbara Dickson.

# Wasn't it good?

# Oh so good

# Wasn't he fine?

# Oh so fine

# Isn't it madness

# He can't be mine? #

Of course, there is Abba
in the bottom.

I mean, you can actually
hear Frida and Agnetha.

# More security

# He needs his fantasy and freedom

# I know him so well. #

ELAINE PAIGE: Well, it was
a challenge, you know,

cos I wanted to do my best.

And I remember thinking
the attention to detail,

there was nothing missed,
even the slightest thing.

If it wasn't quite right
for some reason,

or the rhythm was a bit, you know...

..no, it would all be done again.

No, it's...

# Well, at least she's a
good-looking spy... #

Bum, bum, bum.

# What if my Russian
friend thinks... #

Yeah, you can sing it like that.
So, leave another beat?

Yes.

It was fantastic for me
cos I'm kind of the same myself.

It can drive people mad
but, for me, I loved it.

# Wasn't it good?

# Oh, so good

# Wasn't he fine?

# Oh, so fine

# Isn't it madness

# He won't be mine?

# Didn't I know... #

I Know Him So Well hit number one
in the UK charts

and went on to become
one of the best-selling

female duets of all time.

ELAINE PAIGE: Chess was fantastic.

I mean, that was the best score of
the 1980s.

# I know him so well. #

On the back of the worldwide success
of the concept album,

a West End stage show in London
was inevitable.

I can't imagine Benny and Bjorn
being daunted

or nervous about anything ever.

But when Chess launched
at the West End,

there was a huge amount of
international interest.

When it comes to the opening
of Chess,

of course it was a ton of stress.

I believe I'm right in saying
it was, at that time,

the most expensive musical ever
to open in the West End.

Despite a staggering
£4 million budget,

the musical opened to mixed reviews.

But the experience of making Chess

gave Benny and Bjorn an exciting
new career trajectory.

It was the beginning for them,
I think, to branch out

into musical theatre.
It didn't put them off, did it?

SHE CHUCKLES

While the boys had been immersed
in Chess,

both Frida and Agnetha
were left wondering

where the next Abba song
was coming from.

They don't have the security
of Bjorn and Benny any more,

two men that they've been working
very closely with,

and all of a sudden you're like out
on your own.

It must be really scary.

Frida found herself
in a unique position

as being a solo artist by default.

And her musical inspiration came
from an unlikely

and very British rock star.

On her way to the summer house,
her daughter played her a cassette

which was Face Value, the album of
Phil Collins.

In The Air Tonight, the album's
standout hit, was darkly atmospheric

and featured angry lyrics concerning
Phil Collins' bitter divorce,

and it cut Frida to the core.

MUSIC: In The Air Tonight
by Phil Collins

# I can feel it coming
in the air tonight

# Oh, Lord... #

She loved the Face Value album

that Phil and I had done together.

It was a personal thing as well.

I think she felt attracted
to the songs

that he had written
related to his divorce.

Inspired by Face Value, Frida found
the strength to break free

from Abba and record a solo album,

and she asked Phil Collins
to produce it.

FRIDA: Abba has been working
for ten years now

and...in a way, I feel

that I'm stuck in a pattern,
you know?

And as my life has changed
so completely in other respects,

I feel that it's a necessity
to change even the musical aspect.

I remember being amazed
when Phil said,

"Oh, Frida from Abba has asked
us to do an album.

"Let's... Let's do it."

Hugh Padgham was part
of the all-British crew who,

with Phil Collins, headed to
Stockholm to record the album

in Abba's very own Polar Studios.

I was very, very tense and nervous.

It was the first thing I had done
outside Abba

and all the people were new for me.

I didn't... I had met Phil twice,

and the others I hadn't met at all.

Everything was kind of strange
to her

and she was so nervous that she
had to call in sick the next day,

so the second day of recording.

OK-doke. A little bit
of guitar, please.

I can imagine
if I'd been in her shoes

and being outside your comfort zone
like that, it would have been quite

nerve-racking cos we all knew
each other,

so she was like thrown in
with all these guys.

I can't even imagine what
it was like

cos I know what I've been through.

I've been in way too many sessions
where it's like me and five men.

Just being in that room
is intimidating in itself.

She was kind of subdued
and a little bit timid,

and she didn't really dare to say
what she wanted in the album,

what she wanted it to be like.
Phil was kind of annoyed about this

and tried to convince her to speak
out and to say...

"It's your album, baby,"
he said, "You have to decide."

PLAYS POP-ROCK TUNE

# You made me look
into your eyes... #

But eventually, Frida
and her new band bonded.

Well, when she found out that they
were a team,

a kind of small family, then she
kind of felt at ease

and found her self-confidence again.

Well, you know what I mean... Man.
..man?
FRIDA CHUCKLES

She had this sort of hair thing
going on, and when she was singing,

she used to put her headphones
on under her hair.

She didn't want to mess her hair up.

She was great. She became
one of the boys.

But Frida's attempt to go solo and
find her own style away from Abba

raised an eyebrow with their manager

and Polar Studios boss,
Stig Anderson.

Stig Anderson wasn't happy at all
with the way the album was going

because what he wanted was songs,
pop songs with a very strong hook.

I remember Stig saying something
that made Frida cry.

Stig didn't think that there was
a hit on the album,

and he asked Bjorn and Benny to come
up with some songs.

It's almost like, "Oh, well, she
can't possibly do it on her own,"

undermining the potential that
a woman might actually

have something to offer
in her own right.

But Frida was quite forceful.

She said, "No way."

MUSIC: I Know There's Something
Going On by Anni-Frid Lyngstad

Frida proved Stig wrong,

and the stomping title track,
There's Something Going On -

tellingly about a woman who suspects
her lover is having an affair -

was an international hit.

# I can see that
it won't be long... #

It was a big departure from what
Abba was recording before.

# You grow cold when you keep
holding on... #

She clearly said to Phil, "Whatever
you did on In The Air Tonight,

"I'd like quite a lot more of that."

POP ROCK VIBES

# I know there's
something going on... #

She was marking out her territory
as a solo artist.

She's saying, "Forget about Abba.
I don't sound like that any more."

"I don't look like that any more.
You need to take me as I am now."

The critical and commercial success
of the album

was just what Frida needed as she
moved further away from Abba.

She was extremely proud
of the record.

This was something she did
by herself.

I imagine Frida was like,
"There you go."

You know, "I can do
it without you lot."

On a wave of solo success, Frida cut
herself free

from her old record label
and moved to London.

She wanted to reinvent herself,

and she was kind of held back
in Sweden

because she was reminded of
everything of her life before,

of Benny, of her divorce.

Despite there being no news
of an official Abba split,

now Frida had scored solo success,
Agnetha looked to do the same,

and Abba looked increasingly
like a thing of the past.

SYNTHPOP BEAT PLAYS

Like Frida, Agnetha turned
to a music industry giant

to produce her solo album.

Mike Chapman was a very famous

and successful producer in the '80s.

He'd worked with lots of bands,
the most famous being, of course,

Blondie with the amazing
Debbie Harry,

and he was all about hits,

mainstream success, but retaining
coolness at the same time.

This was something she wanted to do.
It was somewhere she wanted to be.

It was with a producer who was
encouraging her and challenging her

and pushing her voice
in slightly different directions

than perhaps Benny and Bjorn
had been doing,

so it was a very happy atmosphere
for her.

Keen to get away from her reputation
as the forlorn-looking one

who sang the sad Abba songs,

Agnetha plumped for an upbeat album

filled with feel-good numbers

like the album's biggest hit,
The Heat Is On.

TRILLING: # Tropical summer

# Balmy day

# Sit around, you haven't much
to say

# Cos the heat is on... #

Wrap Your Arms Around Me
was a very positive

summer kind of album with a lot
of romanticism in it.

Agnetha, who had never been a fan
of interviews during the Abba years,

was now having to brave the cameras
and promote her album alone.

It was something she knew
she had to do

rather than something
she wanted to do.

Despite - or because of, maybe -
her beauty,

there was a nervousness
about just being seen

as being the face,

rather than being a serious musician
and a serious professional.

This wasn't helped when she suffered

this excruciating interview
on BBC Breakfast Time.

Here to promote the record and
there's an album coming out later

in the month which is called...?

Yeah, the album comes
the last of May

and it's called
Wrap Your Arms Around Me.

I might!
THEY LAUGH

Well, tell me, why are you Swedes

all universally
so infuriatingly beautiful?

A friend of mine calls you clones.

He says every time you see a Swedish
woman or know you're going

to meet one, you know she's going
to be beautiful.

The constant focus
on her physicality, her beauty,

her sexiness was extremely
destructive for Agnetha.

It hurt her sense of confidence
as an artist.

And when asked about the future
of Abba,

Agnetha appeared optimistic.

Frida's working for herself
and I'm working for myself,

but we still try to keep
the group together.

But within a couple of years,
Agnetha and Frida would make

life decisions that would shock fans
the world over

and shatter any hopes of a reunion.

Two years after
the unofficial Abba split,

Bjorn and Benny were devoted to
their musical Chess,

and Agnetha had released her pop
solo album Wrap Your Arms Around Me.

On the back of her successful
collaboration with Phil Collins,

Frida was confidently building
her solo career

outside Sweden and Abba.

Determined to continue
her reinvention

as a successful solo star,

she travelled to Paris to work
with a young

and high-flying producer,
Steve Lillywhite.

Steve Lillywhite, at that point,

was absolutely at the top
of the production tree.

He'd worked with some really,
really cutting edge kind of bands

of the '70s. You know, worked
with Ultravox

and Siouxsie and the Banshees,
the Psychedelic Furs,

had this sort of great
kind of cachet

in that experimental
and electronic music.

Now back in the studio
in a foreign land

and with a complete new set
of musicians,

Frida was once again setting herself
a huge challenge.

She is freshening it up
all over again.

She's very experimental.
She's very much at the cutting edge.

Well, Frida was very positive
about working with Steve Lillywhite,

but everyone was very young.

Frida was, I think, ten years
older than the producer.

Frida had a strong personal input
in her new album, Shine.

With this quirky music video
for its title track,

she projected a fresh and futuristic
image of herself

and an all-out '80s thrashing
musical style.

# You give me love,
you make me shine

# Clear in the midnight sky... #

It's very much about punching
into the '80s -

a very aerobics-inspired
choreography,

the wardrobe is all neon,
all plastic,

lots of shoulder pads,
very angular.

SHE CHUCKLES

# More communication

# More communication,
that's all I need... #

Despite Frida's enthusiasm

for an album she was
extremely proud of,

Shine flopped.

Frida was very disappointed by it
because she really felt 100%

for this album, and she felt
like she was opened up creatively.

She probably wanted to try

and prove the Stig Andersons of this
world wrong,

so when the album wasn't
successful commercially,

that would have knocked that
confidence back quite considerably.

It seemed like success was kind
of fading away,

so everything kind of stopped.

Her confidence knocked
and approaching 40,

Frida quit the fast pace of London.

In search of a new way of life,

she headed to the tranquillity
of Switzerland.

Frida's reinvented herself
multiple times in her life

and she has a kind
of driving ambition,

so even though she endures
failures and setbacks,

she's not completely tanked by it.
She simply changes direction.

It takes a huge amount of inner
strength to be able to do that.

Back in Sweden,
Agnetha was also struggling

with the tough realities
of going solo.

An ongoing battle
with the tabloid press

made life increasingly unbearable.

Agnetha was the honeypot

that the flies of the Swedish
tabloid press

started to swarm around.

Because she was always a very
private and sensitive person,

they kind of latched on that
and wanted to know more.

She was no longer protected
by the Abba bubble,

and she found it very difficult
to cope with it.

Throughout the 1980s, unpleasant
and often fictitious tabloid tales

concerning Agnetha and her private
life appeared

on an almost daily basis.

They were linking her romantically
to men

that she wasn't involved with.

There were stories on the front
pages that she was pregnant

when she wasn't. And then when
a baby didn't appear,

the stories were, "Agnetha has
suffered a miscarriage."

Feeling under siege from the media,

Agnetha became
increasingly reclusive,

refusing to do any promotional work
on releasing new material.

She just didn't want to do
that any more.

I mean, there's loads of interviews
you can see

where you can see she just doesn't
want to be there.

The only recourse
she had was to say,

"No, I'm not doing your interviews."

So she began to withdraw
more and more into seclusion.

Agnetha did have one final throw
of the dice

when, in 1988, she flew to London
to promote an album

on the Wogan chat show.

# Let me lose you
like I found you... #

The track she chose to sing
was fittingly titled The Last Time.

# If it's the last time

# There's no danger in the fire

# Let it burn and take us higher

# Let's give it one more try... #

You kind of felt, listening to it,

that this was a woman saying goodbye
in many ways.

She was now in her late 30s,
pushing 40,

and she didn't feel she had
the motivation on her side.

She now just wanted to be a mother

and her pop career now
was behind her.

You obviously still want to put
yourself through

the rigmarole of pop music.

Yes. Well, it just happens,
you know?

It's hard to, um...get away from it.

It would definitely have been one of
those moments where she didn't

really want to be there.
Her heart wasn't in it anymore.

But one would have imagined
that you would have bought yourself

the little house on the fjord
and just...

Well, I have! ..retired.
Oh, you have?

This was indeed Agnetha's last time.

Shortly after her BBC appearance,

she moved to the quiet island
of Ekero,

45 minutes outside Stockholm.

After two decades in the limelight,

an exhausted Agnetha was about to
disappear from the public eye.

I thought, "I have to have
a little break now, and...

"Oh, I've done so much,

"I want to be with my children
and in my home

"and with the horses
and with my dogs."

Whilst Agnetha and Frida withdrew
from music and public life,

the experience of creating
the musical Chess

had Benny keen to do more.

Teaming up with Bjorn once again,

he embarked on an epic
Swedish project

that reconnected him with his
folk music roots -

a musical based on a classic Swedish
novel, Kristina Fran Duvemala,

with themes close to Benny's heart,
as he revealed in this interview.

It's dealing with the fact
that over a million Swedish people

emigrated to America
in the 19th century.

OPERATIC SINGING IN SWEDISH

Kristina Fran Duvemala
couldn't be further away

from the glitter and the gloss
and the spandex of the Abba years.

You've got a very strong story
about survivalism, migration,

the Swedish national character.

There's some beautiful songs
in that.

It just showed the versatility,
doesn't it,

of what they can do and can write?

What they've been able to do
over the years

is move their style

from that immediate
three-minute pop song,

and they've been able
to broaden it out.

I think that anything that Benny
and Bjorn seem to do is magic.

Kristina Fran Duvemala
was a critical

and commercial hit in Sweden,

attracting an audience
of more than a million people

and elevating Bjorn and Benny
to national treasure status.

Meanwhile, over 1,000 miles away
in Switzerland,

Frida's life was about to mirror
that of a fairy tale

when she met and fell in love
with a German prince.

FRIDA IN SWEDISH:

She looked more relaxed
and more at ease with herself.

She had overcome
a lot of insecurities.

She has a more classy look now.
She's not so rock attitude anymore.

The romance with Prince Ruzzo Ruess
resulted in a marriage in 1992.

Frida's personal journey
has been completely fascinating.

She went from being
the orphaned child

to a global superstar

to stepping away from fame,

and then marrying
into German royalty

on top of being
musical royalty herself.

With Frida living a new exclusive
life in Switzerland,

Agnetha retreating to her remote
Swedish island,

and Benny and Bjorn dedicating
themselves to their Swedish musical,

by the early '90s, the former
Abba members

couldn't have been further apart.

But an unexpected revival
was about to send the world

Abba-crazy once again.

# I've been cheated by you
since I don't know when... #

I really fell in love with them
when I took my daughter

and my nieces to see Mamma Mia!
the musical.

# Whoa-oh

# Mamma mia. #

June 1992...

This is definitely one of the
most surreal nights of my life.

..appearing in front
of a huge crowd,

Benny and Bjorn were invited
on stage by U2

to play a stripped-down version

of their absolute classic hit
Dancing Queen.

Bjorn and Benny.

# Friday night
and the lights are low

# Looking out for a place to go

# Where they play the right music

# Ready to sort of sing

# You're in the mood
for a dance... #

Ten years after the band's
unofficial split,

they were reconnecting
with Abba's music.

There was a moment when
Benny and Bjorn changed their mind.

Instead of running away from Abba,

in the '90s, they decided
to turn round

and run straight back towards Abba.

# Having the time of your life

# Oh, see that girl

# Watch that scene

# Digging the dancing queen

# Oh-oh. #

And again!

# If you change your mind,
I'm the first in line

# Honey, I'm still free... #

After being ignored for almost
a decade,

the music of Abba
captured the zeitgeist once again.

There was absolutely a need
and a desire for optimism.

The '90s went back into
having this no-holds barred

front and centre pop music,

so it was really a great breeding
ground decade

for the shiny pop
that Abba had been making

to come back into vogue again.

In 1992, British band Erasure paid
tribute to their favourite group

and released an EP of Abba covers.

ANDY BELL: I mean, I just had a
passion, I really had a passion

for them and I just thought...
I thought they were undersung.

These songs were so kind
of impressed on me,

I had to do them.
We just had to do them.

I had to do them live, had to do
them just to get them

out of my system, the songs.

# You wanted to leave me there,
afraid of a love affair

# But I think you know

# That I can't let go... #

Abba-esque gave Erasure their first
number one single in the UK chart

and bolstered
Abba's renewed popularity.

Something was bubbling under
in the zeitgeist,

and we just happened to put
this thing out at the same time,

and I'm really glad
that I was part of it.

Abba's record label
jumped on the revival wagon

and that same year
released Abba Gold -

a compilation of
all their greatest hits

that cemented a legacy

that Bjorn and Benny
could never have dreamt of.

# I've been cheated by you
since I don't know... #

The songs are just
classic pop songs,

and a classic good pop song
just won't die.

The album sold over five million
copies within a year of release.

We were in the height
of the CD era then,

so this was racked up
in every supermarket,

record shop,
anywhere that sold music.

So that was the opportunity,
for women in particular,

to be able to kind of
grab the CD off the shelf,

play it, dance around the kitchen
with their kids,

introduce those songs to that
up-and-coming generation as well.

I don't even know
if it has been out of the charts

in the 30 years
since it was released.

That really was the catalyst
of their reappraisal.

After Abba Gold, it was like...

..full speed ahead.

Whilst the world was once again
going Abba mad,

Frida, now happy and settled
in her private life

and encouraged by her prince,

made an unexpected return to Sweden
to record new music.

Sek-sek-sek.

She wanted to do an album
that meant something to her,

which would go a little bit further
than just doing an album.

But having spent a decade
away from the studio,

the return was challenging.

Frida's efforts paid off

and resulted in this elegant single,
Aven En Blomma.

# I djupa andetag

# En manniskas karlek och lag... #

The song was about inner growth,

the evolvement of herself as
a person, as a woman,

the journey she had been on,

and also nature, and how important
it was to care about nature.

The album was
a massive hit in Sweden,

and on a personal level,
Frida was deeply satisfied

with the compositions
and the themes it explored.

BELL TOLLS

Meanwhile, as the resurging interest
in Abba's music grew,

in London, Bjorn and Benny
were in talks

about an exciting new project -

a musical built
around their greatest hits

that would introduce Abba

to an even wider audience.

I really discovered them

when I took my daughter
and my nieces

to see Mamma Mia! the musical.

Not thinking I was going to...
Sorry, boys!

Not thinking I was going to
enjoy it at all.

And, erm...
I was just blown away by it.

The musical was the brainchild
of theatre producer Judy Craymer,

who came up with the idea
while working on Chess

with Bjorn and Benny
a decade earlier.

It was one woman's obsession
with Abba

that actually got this musical
off the ground.

I mean, she lives Abba,
I think, Judy.

I know Judy Craymer
had approached Benny and Bjorn

many, many times over, saying,
"Please let me do this."

And they said no, for starters.

But on a warm summer evening
in 1995,

after enjoying Grease
on the West End stage,

Bjorn had a change of heart

and saw the potential
in Judy Craymer's idea.

And then they said,
"Yes, come up with a good script."

Now under pressure
to come up with a good story,

Judy Craymer turned to
playwright Catherine Johnson.

The plot of Mamma Mia was hashed out
at Paddington Station,

probably over a congealed sandwich
and a cold coffee,

by Judy Craymer and her collaborator
Catherine Johnson,

who was a traditional,
very respected,

old-school theatre lady.

So it started spinning,

and suddenly
Catherine had this vision.

What about a young girl?

She doesn't know who her father is
and she's getting married.

And she invites three guys
who could be her dad

based on her mum's diary,

and they will show up
at this lovely Grecian event.

And then Judy just said to her,
"You're not taking the train,

"you're sitting down,
now we're working."

It sounds so crackers,
but it's a very strong idea,

cos it's all about love
and family and belonging,

and that's what Abba's about.

Judy then turned to celebrated
theatre director Phyllida Lloyd

to complete
the all-female creative team.

I loved it
that there was a team of women.

It just makes it feel...special
and empowering in many ways.

When word got out
that production was under way,

the project made headlines
all over the world,

leaving Agnetha and Frida
to hear about it

at the same time as everybody else.

When Frida heard about
the musical Mamma Mia,

through the media,

it was reported that the musical
would be about the story of Abba.

She immediately sent off
an angry fax to Bjorn,

saying like, "What the hell
do you think you're doing?"

But once again,
the tabloid press was speculating

and had got it wrong.

Bjorn, of course, replied
that it wasn't the case at all,

it was a complete different story,

after which she eventually became
one of its investors.

When the show opened in London
on the 6th of April 1999,

it was the talk of the town.

If you weren't at the premiere,
at the first night,

I mean, forget it,
you're just in social Siberia.

The musical's launch coincided
beautifully

with the 25th anniversary

of Abba winning the Eurovision
Song Contest with Waterloo.

The audience went wild.

# I was cheated by you
and I think you know when... #

I don't think I've ever experienced
something like that.

It was like, I don't know,
a mashup

between a late-night disco
and a theatre.

It was amazing.

Oh, it was magic.

People were chuckling,
and then people were laughing,

and then people were dancing
and laughing.

# There's a fire within my soul... #

Mamma Mia became one of the highest
grossing musicals of all time,

generating another huge wave
of Abba fans.

The music was just so infectious

and so uplifting and so moving

that I immediately bought the album.

# You are the dancing queen

# Young and sweet, only 17... #

It makes a journey out of the music

in a way that was
incredibly appealing

to people that had missed out
on Abba first time round.

# You can dance, you can jive... #

A lot of people in my age

who weren't really, like,
super, super into pop,

that was their first introduction
to Abba songs.

With a tidal wave of new Abba fans,

the world media became obsessed
with a possible Abba reunion.

Are you surprised that Abba keeps
coming back and back and back,

are you surprised? Yeah...
No, we never came back.

That's the good thing about Abba.
No, we never reunited.

But on that opening night,

while Bjorn and Benny
were heralding an Abba revival,

Agnetha and Frida
were nowhere to be seen.

The great Abba revival of the 1990s
came along

at the wrong time for Agnetha.

This was a very dark period,

probably the worst period
in her life.

# I was cheated by you
and I think you know when

# So I made up my mind
it must come to an end... #

The glitzy opening of the most
anticipated musical in decades,

Mamma Mia.

# I don't know how
But I suddenly lose control... #

An outright success for
songwriters Benny and Bjorn.

But that night, there were
two conspicuous absentees.

We don't know yet because
they haven't been here yet.

They should come because they are
as much a part of this as we are.

700 miles away in Switzerland,

Frida had found inner peace,
close to nature,

with her beloved husband,
Prince Ruzzo,

and she was slowly
reconnecting with music.

But on a dark winter's day
in 1998,

her happiness was shattered

when she received the tragic news
no mother wants to hear.

She lost her daughter
after a car accident,

which was a tragic event
which struck very hard.

This tragedy left Frida
in a state of shock for many years,

as she revealed in this intimate
2016 interview.

While dealing with
this unbearable grief,

a year later, tragedy struck again.

Her beloved husband Ruzzo
passed away at the age of 49,

leaving a huge void in her life,

as she reflected
in the same interview.

Plunged into deep grief,

Frida once again stepped away
from music and public life.

In her island seclusion,
Agnetha was also deep in grief -

after the tragic loss of her mother,
who took her own life,

and the death of her father
soon after.

This was a very dark period for her,

probably the worst period
in her life,

and she just needed
to be left alone.

She needed time to process

all of these traumatic things
that had happened to her.

But it made her vulnerable.

It made her vulnerable
to being targeted -

not just physically and practically,
but also emotionally.

And someone did indeed
take advantage

of Agnetha's
emotional vulnerability.

She had somehow become involved
with a crazed stalker fan

called Gert van de Graaf.

He was a forklift driver,
he was Dutch,

he was obsessive,
he made no secret of it.

He found out where Agnetha lived,

and eventually he bought
a ramshackle little wooden house

about a mile from Agnetha's house.

And every day he would
post a letter in her letterbox.

She had reached a point in her life

where I think
she was just very fragile,

and the idea that there was somebody
out there living close to her

that was interested in her,
that wanted to get to know her,

I think she felt...
slightly worn down by him,

but was willing to see
why did he want to know her,

so she opened up her life to him.

And they had some kind
of twisted romance

that she broke away from
after a short period of time,

but he continued to...
stalk and harass her

with thousands of phone calls
and letters.

The media label her as a recluse.

What they didn't understand

was that she was too frightened
to leave her house.

After years of legal battles,

Gert was eventually given
a restraining order

and was banned
from entering Sweden.

With Van der Graaf
safely out of the country

and keen to put the whole
distressing affair behind her,

Agnetha felt ready to return
to her true passion.

Agnetha was free to rebuild
her fragile emotional health,

and one of the ways
she started to do that

was listening to music again,

and it was the music that she had
fallen in love with as a teenager.

It was the music of Connie Francis
and Dusty Springfield.

And now, 40 years later,

they inspired her
to be a singer again.

# And feed you winter fruits
and summer wine... #

After 17 years of silence,

Agnetha returned to music
with a 1960s swagger

and this intimate version
of Cilla Black's

If I Thought
You'd Ever Change Your Mind.

# I will bring you happiness

# Wrapped up in a box
and tied with a yellow bow... #

It was amazing
to see Agnetha coming back,

being able to re-present herself now
as a more mature woman.

I'm a big admirer of her voice,
the way she sings.

I think she's one of the best
Swedish vocalists ever.

Despite Agnetha keeping
public appearances to a minimum,

fans and the media began speculating
about an Abba reunion.

If she's now interested
in making music again,

is this going to be the key

that unlocks
the great Abba reunion?

But instead of a reunion,

Benny and Bjorn preferred
to focus their efforts

on developing the hugely successful
Mamma Mia franchise

and took it to another level.

Well, my agent rang me up.

I can remember
I was standing in the kitchen

and him saying, "They're going
to make a film of Mamma Mia."

And they said, "Would you like to be
Meryl Streep's friend in it?"

And I said, "Yes, of course I would,
I love that musical, yes!"

Based on the stage show,
the movie attracted a stellar cast.

Mamma Mia is pure escapism.

It's a vision of the world

where everyone is literally
singing and dancing all the time.

When the cast met for the first time

to record the soundtrack at
Air Studios in London,

they were faced with the musical
complexity of Abba songs.

It was a bit of a baptism of fire.

First of all, you meet Meryl Streep,
and I've never met her,

then you're taken through
and there are the Abba boys.

Benny's on the piano, he says,
"Let's sing Dancing Queen."

God, we've just got in, I've only
rehearsed a couple of days!

So we're all around the piano
doing that but it was fine.

To ensure the Abba magic
was kept in the soundtrack,

Benny and Bjorn attended
most recording sessions

with their trusted sound engineer,
Bernard Lohr.

They are actors,
not professional singers,

so I had to work a little bit more
in editing and fixing.

They want it right.

It's their music, it's their baby,
isn't it?

So you felt a huge responsibility
as well,

much more responsibility
cos they were there.

But they gave me confidence -
not the opposite, you'd think...

But they didn't, they certainly
gave me confidence, yeah.

The confidence instilled
in the actors shone through

when Julie Walters, Meryl Streep
and Christine Baranski

performed this comedic take
on Dancing Queen.

# You are the dancing queen

# Young and sweet, only 17... #

If bearing the weight
of Abba's musical legacy

wasn't daunting enough,
the actors also had to dance.

This proved a struggle
for the male leads.

They're not great fans of it,
really,

the singing and dancing,
I don't think.

I can remember Colin's face,

you know, absolutely terrified
at the thought of this dancing.

# Take a chance on me... #

Julie Walters' dance skills
were also put to the test

when she performed
Take A Chance On Me

in front of the entire cast
in the film's wedding-party climax.

# If you're all alone
when the pretty birds have flown

# Honey, I'm still free,
take a chance on me... #

The choreographer said to me,
"Do what you like down the table."

I said, "Oh, OK, then,"
so I didn't have to rehearse,

I didn't want to rehearse it
in front of everybody,

which was a big mistake.

So come the day, all of the dancers
and people are there,

all of the cast are down...
and I have to go down that table.

I had a coughing fit
in sort of anxiety

and had to have a brown paper bag...
like this!

But it was great fun after that.

# Take a chance on me

# Take a chance on me... #

The songs just didn't get boring,
ever.

When you're filming a scene,
they go on for days,

and they still didn't get boring,

still made you want to,
"Yeah, here we come again!"

Mamma Mia Was to become

one of the highest grossing
musical movies of all time.

It's just a really intelligent,
huge move

for keeping that Abba legacy alive.

It's like a sort of cyclical thing
that can happen across the decades.

And when the film premiered
in Stockholm in July 2008,

Abba fans were in for a treat.

Bjorn...and Benny

were joined for the first time
in 22 years

by Frida and Agnetha,

who'd stepped out of the shadows
to surprise the cast.

The photographers were screaming out

for them
just to be the four of them,

but they always refused,

because they felt that if there was
a photograph of the four of them,

that would be the photograph
that would be in the press

and this wasn't about Abba,
this was about Mamma Mia.

It may have been about Mamma Mia,

but seeing them together
had fans starting to think

what was, until then,
the unthinkable.

That whole kind of excitement
about the...

"What if? Could it really happen?"
definitely came back in,

and people started thinking,
"Well, you know, never say never.

"Keep our fingers crossed,
maybe it will."

London 2013.

At the annual Children in Need Rocks
charity event,

Gary Barlow performs a duet
that drives Abba fans into a frenzy.

This young lady's not been on stage
for over 25 years.

Gary Barlow had pulled off
the impossible

as he coaxed an anxious Agnetha
back on stage

for this powerful performance of
I Should Have Followed You Home.

# I can't believe it's really you

# You still look
the way you used to... #

It's obvious
that Agnetha is nervous.

She's looking at Gary Barlow
for reassurance,

and then that stone-cold
professionalism kicks in.

Her voice is amazing.

It's like listening to
running silver.

# Maybe if you want to

# I'll see you soon again... #

Knowing what she's been through,

I think a lot of fans
just want her to be happy,

and seeing her on stage again,

she genuinely seemed happy.

I'm so glad to be here tonight.

Thank you, Gary.
CHEERING

Thank you, everyone.

Her confidence now growing,

Agnetha embraced the Mamma Mia
musical phenomenon

and started attending
promotional events.

In coming back out into public life,

Agnetha is leaving the door open
for the Abba reunion.

Because let's not forget,
they never broke up.

You know, putting something
on standby

is not the same as unplugging it.

A couple of years later,
at a private event,

Agnetha went back on stage,
this time with Frida.

And that night the two of them

truly brought the dream
of an Abba reunion

one step closer.

We would love to dedicate
this song to you

from us, Agnetha and myself.

2016 was the 50th anniversary
of the day that Benny and Bjorn met.

Agnetha and Frida, naturally,
were invited,

but what we didn't think happen

was that they would get on stage
and sing a song.

# We can face it together

# The way old friends do... #

The only record
of that special moment

is this mobile-phone footage
of Frida and Agnetha

reunited in song for the first time
in over 30 years.

# The way old friends do... #

It was totally right
that they were on stage.

that was great, and also the fact

that they were singing
The Way Old Friends Do,

because that's what it is -
they are old friends.

# The way old friends do... #

With friendships rekindled,

in 2018, it finally happened.

Abba announced they were
getting back together

for a very special show.

When the news came out,

everyone just had
this sort of frisson of excitement

thinking, "Does this mean
they're going to tour again?

"Is there an album?
What's going to be happening?"

But it wasn't the return
that everyone was expecting.

I have a vision of the future.

And in that future,

Abba were to return
not as themselves -

but as Abbatars.

Using motion-capture technology,

an extraordinary series of concerts
were to see Abba return

as digitally animated characters
based on their 1979 younger selves.

It's something in their make-up
and their psyche

that they're always kind of
ahead of the game,

and nobody else has done this,

have they, before, a virtual tour?
Brilliant.

And for Abba fans,

the dream was about to get
even better.

Whilst working on
the Abbatar project,

the urge to make new music
became irresistible.

For the first time
in almost four decades,

Abba recorded a new song
behind closed doors.

I think they kept it a secret
to see if it will work.

I mean, to come back after 40 years,
it gives you insecurity maybe.

Is this the right thing?

But to hear the voices of
Frida and Agnetha is fantastic.

# I still have faith in you

# I see it now... #

You couldn't have chosen
a more perfect Abba comeback song

than I Still Have Faith In You.

It's like a love song to themselves

and to history and to time.

# There was a union... #

I see a sense of reconciliation

and an increased comfort
between the members of the band.

That song, to me,
was a beautiful story

of how they can look back
at all their memories

that they have shared
and experienced

and still be excited to create more.

I think that's very inspiring.

# I still have faith in you... #

Since going their separate ways
40 years ago,

the four members of Abba
have experienced

a roller-coaster of triumphs,
adversity and tragedy.

They went through pain and trials
and tribulations and suffering,

and yet they're still friends.

And underpinning
those four tumultuous decades

is a musical legacy that has grown
beyond all expectations.

My God, that is
an incredible tribute.

Incredible to think
that somebody's had the career,

and here we are 40 years later,
and it's still as prevalent.

I don't know what kind of artist
I would have been,

or if I even would have
been here right now,

if it wasn't for Abba.

It's a gift, they've got the gift.

It kind of goes on and on and on,
it gets to people.

It's magic.