UK, ITV2, 20 December 2004
UK, ITV1, 9.20pm - Saturday 27th August 2005 (billed as "ABBA - The Reunion"), 26th November 2006
Canada, Bravo!, 7.30pm (EST) - Tuesday 21st September 2004
France, Paris Premiere, June 2005 & 21 June 2006 at 11pm
Germany (BR) - Monday 27 December 2004
Germany (NDR) - Wednesday 2 December 2004, 6 April 2005 on EinsFestival
Germany (?) - 3 January 2009 at 11.35pm
Finland (SubTV - March 25th 2005 (entitled "Abba 30 vuotta" (ABBA 30 years) & 25 May 2006 on MTV3 at 2.30pm
Italy, Sky Sat Channel 109 - 28 June 2005 at 23.00
Australia, Channel 7, 8.30pm - Friday 24th September 2004; 10th & 11th November and 2nd & 3rd December, 29 December 2006, 10.30pm and 30 December 2006, at 10.30am and 4.30pm, Ovation Channel Australia, 24 June 2007 and 3 times on 25 June 2007, Ovation Channel Australia; Monday 22 October 2007, Ovation Channel Australia at 8.30pm and Tuesday 23rd October 2007 at 2.30am, 8.30am and 12pm; Channel 7, Wednesday 21st May 2008 at 8.30pm.
USA (Ovation: The Arts Network) - January 2005 - 16th (4pm), 19th (10.30pm, 20th (2.30am), 22nd (8pm), 23rd (12am), 25 (8pm); March 13th 2005 at 1pm, March 28th at 10pm EST, 8th & 31st December 2006
USA (PBS), 8pm, - Sunday 5th June 2005, WUHT, 22 June 2005 at 8.30pm; WGBX 25 June 2005 at 1pm; PBS 4 Aug 2005 at 10pm (EST); PBS13, 11 Aug 2005 at 10.30pm; 4 December 2005 on KCTS; Saturday 10 December, KSPS
Sweden, SVT1, 12 May 2005 at 9pm and 14th May at 3.45pm
Denmark, TV Zulu, 29 May 2005 at 8pm
Romania, 12 January 2006
Netherlands, RTL4, - Saturday 1st January 2005 and Monday 26 December 2005
Released officially on DVD : UK - Monday 20th September 2004
Sweden - 11th October 2004
Canada - 26th October 2004
Australia - 15 November 2004
USA - 25 January 2005
"The idea for the documentary was to follow the build up to the 5th
Anniversary gala performance of "Mamma Mia!" as the 4 original members of
ABBA prepared to attend the show, marking the first time all 4 members of
the group appeared on stage together since their split in the early 1980s.
The suspense builds as it is unknown whether Agnetha, with her fear of
flying would be able to attend."
The broadcast time of the documentary was 72 minutes (due to commercial
breaks) although the running time of the programme on the DVD release is 90
minutes. Pete Waterman narrates the programme along with voice-overs
("sound-bites") from Benny, Björn, Agnetha and Frida - taken from their
interviews for the 1999 documentary, "ABBA - The Story, The Winner Takes It
All" (and very cleverly disguised) or recorded for this programme.
There is "new" footage of Agnetha although it was filmed for the 1999 programme in the grounds of Drottningholm Palace. Other Agnetha footage is from her own programme earlier this year.
Exclusive to the DVD release are interviews with Björn and Frida. These are just answering questions which are used as voice-overs in the main programme. The DVD release also includes the entire finale of the gala performance of "Mamma Mia!" where Benny, Björn and Frida appear together on stage.
Björn and Frida are seen exchanging words backstage in Swedish. Björn says,
"To see it now - it's so strange". Frida: "Yes, it's strange, but
it's incredibly nice".
This documentary was produced by Iambic Productions, the same
company that put together the 1999 special "The Winner Takes It All - The
ABBA Story".
Jon Lord - Frida's project of "The Sun Will Shine Again" was clearly already underway back in April.
Thanks to ABBAMAIL - specifically Alex Jones, George Lewycky, Ian Cole, Graeme Read, Stephen Morris, Liesbeth Lobato, Darren Lloyd, Luke Rogers, Trijnie Dijkema, Bill Paganucci, Ron Miskoff, Pascale Ranson, Helen Middlemass, Kaarin Goodburn, Dominic "Ice" Wallis, Charlie McNab, Jan Bach, Samia Jalal, Erik Menkens and Grant Whittingham. Thanks also to Petri Kaasalainen, Sam Kentie, Michel Evers, Alessandra Crema, Magda, James O'Brien, Michaela Ciucur and Steve Mencher.