Take That ‘hungry’ for success as they prove they’re back for good with new Netflix documentary

Take That made sure that fans had a night they would never forget as they surprised an audience with a special performance at a screening of their new documentary in London last week – and HELLO! was there to witness the boyband mania. Band members Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen took to the stage to thank the crowd for coming and performed their classic ballad Back for Good.

Mark then made his way into the audience during a rendition of Shine and was swept into a hug by an excited fan. Singing ‘you can have it all’, he told the woman: “You did have it all!”

“Enjoy the doc,” Howard added, before the band left the auditorium.

Take That’s celebrity friends turned out in force for the exclusive screening at Battersea Power Station, which was decorated in Nineties style, with the group posing in a re-creation of a teenage fan’s bedroom. “Launch fun,” Gary wrote on Instagram. 

The presenter Amanda Holden and her husband, the record producer Chris Hughes, joined the former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard at a bar that was serving nostalgic Bacardi Breezers and Hooch.

The presenter Joel Dommett and the JLS singer Oritsé Williams mingled with fans, while James Corden, who once collaborated with Gary on a documentary, happily stopped for selfies.

“Bloody hell, this was cool,” Joel wrote alongside a video of the band performing. “Doc is really great too. It’s so bloody ’90s.”

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The eponymous series, which launched on Netflix last week, traces the band’s rise to fame, from their early beginnings through to their dramatic split and subsequent comeback. The production company has drawn from 35 hours of unseen footage to create the show.

Formed in 1989 in Manchester, Take That originally comprised Gary, Howard, Mark, Jason Orange and Robbie Williams, before Robbie left to pursue solo success in 1995. The documentary shows Gary opening up about his struggles with bulimia following the split. 

“You just go off to a dark corner of the house and just throw up, just make yourself sick. You think it’s only once and all of a sudden you’re walking down that corridor again and again.”

The four remaining band members reunited in 2005, following an ITV documentary that drew six million viewers, and went on to enjoy a second wave of success, touring in 2006 and achieving their ninth No.1 single with Patience.

“I wanted to walk out on stage again. I wanted to sing again. I wanted that audience again,’ Gary says in the series. ‘I was desperate for it all, but wanted it to be right for us all. I wanted it to feel good for everyone. And I suppose that was new, because I didn’t really care about anybody else in the Nineties.”

The documentary shows how the band tried to stop Jason from leaving before he finally departed in 2014, saying, “I just don’t want to do this”. 

“Jason sat us all down and said: ‘Listen, I don’t want to be in the band any more. I think I’m done,’” Howard recalls. “It was really sad because Jason felt like one of my best friends. It was a scary time, because I almost felt as though I was going back to 1996 again. It was a very uncomfortable feeling. I didn’t really know where to turn.”

Following Jason’s departure, Gary, Mark and Howard continued to release music, including the albums III and Wonderland.

© Grant Buchanan/Dave Benett/WireI

More than 20 years after they initially re-formed, 2026 is set to be a big year for Take That, who will embark on a UK and Ireland tour this summer before releasing their tenth studio album. “We’re not young whippersnappers any more,” Howard says. “But we’re still out there selling tickets, and we’re hungry.”

The documentary is available to watch on Netflix now.