Agnethe:Abba and After BBC 1, 10.35pm.

I grew up with Abba. I know that’s kind of sad, I wasn’t a rock- and- roll- wild child, into heavy metal, or even a Satanist. I listened to the charts on the radio, but not religiously. The first album I ever thought about buying was ‘Bat Out of Hell’ and it had been Number 1 for about 50 weeks and I had to ask who the singer was. I was so uncool I watched the Eurovision Song Contest and I remember Abba winning it with Waterloo. Abba have sold something like 230 million albums. I never bought one. But I did like their songs. The impression I get of Agnetha is that success was always a surprise. As a teenage singer she had a couple of hits in her native Sweden. Then she got married and had a couple of hits in Sweden with Abba. She expected to come about third in Eurovision and imagined that would help them move into the English speaking pop world and sell records. At one time they were Sweden’s number one export. Now she’s older and promoting a new album. She’s rich and doesn’t need the money, but singing is what she’s done and what she knows. Agnethe seems, on camera, a sweet and nice elderly lady. Was Waterloo all those years ago. Oh dear. Oh dear. Mamma, at Waterloo Napoleon did surrender…