Kylie Minogue [Eras]

Episodes

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01Kylie Minogue: 1. She Should Be So Lucky2023090220230917 (R2)Join Scott Mills for the ultimate celebration of the UK's best-loved pop star, who this year headlines Radio 2 in the Park on Sunday 17 September.

When a teenage Kylie lit up Aussie screens in Neighbours, the die was cast for her meteoric rise to fame. Before long, she'd launched a parallel career as a singer - and left Ramsay Street in the rear-view mirror.

After that? No prizes for guessing. Sold-out stadiums. Hollywood. Heartbreak. A music career spanning five decades - with hits in every single one of them.

No artist works at Kylie's level for that long without a gift for reinvention. In Eras: Kylie Minogue, Scott follows Kylie as she deftly navigates a changing music industry, personal crises, and harsh critics - and never stops winning. Along the way, you'll hear the tracks that left deep grooves on the face of pop culture - and are still making them today.

In this episode, new interviews and the BBC Archive reveal a star who's finding her feet - but always knows where she stands. Smart, self-assured, and in the studio with synthpop svengalis Stock, Aitken and Waterman, Kylie discovers the value of great collaborators - and the power of her own image.

But Britpop is on the horizon. New relationships - both professional and personal - are making their mark. A new era beckons - time for a change.

Contributors include fellow performer at Radio 2 in the Park Beverley Knight, Jack Savoretti, David Tennant (who Kylie starred with in a special Christmas episode of Doctor Who in 2007, watched by over 13 million viewers), Tia Kofi, Jaime Winstone, and Radio 2 presenters Fearne Cotton, Owain Wyn Evans and Michelle Visage.

Scott Mills revisits the eras of Kylie Minogue. In Episode One, find out how it all began.

02Kylie Minogue: 2. She Don't Need Anyone2023090220230917 (R2)Join Scott Mills for the ultimate celebration of the UK's best-loved pop star, who this year headlines Radio 2 in the Park on Sunday 17 September.

The 90s are well underway, and Kylie Minogue is in uncharted territory. After splitting with powerhouse production team Stock, Aitken and Waterman, she's joined forces with indie label Deconstruction Records, spurning the advances of a slew of record industry suits.

For Kylie, it's an era defined by experimentation. A new look, a new ethos and a host of unexpected collaborations: M People, Pet Shop Boys, Manic Street Preachers, Nick Cave and more.

It's not always an easy ride. As an artist, she's maturing in the public eye. Caught between the worlds of pop and ‘credible' indie, Kylie fiercely resists pigeonholing from the press and fans alike.

Through revealing interviews, both brand new and from the BBC Archive, you'll witness one of pop's great metamorphoses. A process that takes the girl who was Charlene, and molds her into one of pop's savviest operators, following her own road to megastardom.

On the cusp of a new millennium, Kylie's ready to dominate the charts. However will she pull it off?

Contributors include Keith Blackhurst, David Tennant, Beverley Knight, Jessie Ware (who collaborated with Kylie on the single Kiss of Life released in October 2021), Jack Savoretti (who duetted with Kylie for their 2018 song Music's Too Sad Without You), Jake Shears (who collaborated with Kylie for her 2004 single I Believe in You, as well as her 2010 album Aphrodite and their 2018 song Voices), and Radio 2 presenters Rylan Clark and Dermot O'Leary.

Scott Mills puts Indie Kylie in the spotlight in the second episode of Eras.

It's not always an easy ride. As an artist, she's maturing in the public eye. Caught between the worlds of pop and ‘credible' indie, Kylie fiercely resists pigeonholing from the press and fans alike.

03Kylie Minogue: 3. She Can't Get You Out Of Her Head2023090320230902 (R2)
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Join Scott Mills for the ultimate celebration of the UK's best-loved pop star, who this year headlines Radio 2 in the Park on Sunday 17 September.

Australia rings in the New Year first. But as a new millennium dawns, one of her favorite daughters is relaxing in LA. She won't be standing still for long.

In the summer of 2000, the world entered Kylie Minogue's third and most iconic era so far. Newly signed to a major label, she's about to unleash a wave of shimmering dance-pop - an imperial phase.

Spinning Around introduces audiences to a yet another incarnation of Kylie - one whose sophisticated sound, sex appeal and knowing sense of fun rockets her to her rightful place at the top of the charts. It's a feat she'll repeat with a run of hits that dominates radio playlists. Can't Get You Out of My Head, with its La La La earworm, makes waves across the Atlantic. The future looks Golden.

But in 2005, a shock diagnosis with breast cancer cuts the music short. Her illness and recovery play out in public.

Through BBC Archive and new interviews with those who knew her at the time, you'll track the dizzy highs and crushing lows of a turbulent era for the Queen of Noughties Pop. An era that leaves her stronger, wiser - and more determined than ever to perform.

Contributors include British singer and actor Olly Alexander, Tia Kofi, Jessie Ware, Beverley Knight, Jack Savoretti, Jake Shears and Cathy Dennis (who co-wrote Kylie's 2001 hit Can't Get You Out of My Head), as well as Radio 2 presenters Fearne Cotton and Michelle Visage.

Scott Mills takes us onto the dance floor for Kylie's noughties pop renaissance.

04Kylie Minogue: 4. She Hears It And She Knows2023090320230902 (R2)
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Join Scott Mills for the ultimate celebration of the UK's best-loved pop star, who this year headlines Radio 2 in the Park on Sunday 17 September.

All good things come to an end - unless you're Kylie Minogue, apparently.

In 2012, Kylie marked 25 years in the music industry. The Abbey Road Sessions, an album of radical reworkings of some of her biggest hits, could easily have bookended a career few others could match. As it turned out, it was more of a bookmark - an acknowledgement of what had gone before, with the promise of more to come.

In the last decade, Kylie has embraced possibility, turning her time-tested talents to new musical challenges. From country music to Covid home-studios and star-studded floorfillers, this was the era where Kylie most obviously did what she's always done - whatever she likes.

And then - Padam Padam. The undeniable sound of summer 2023, and the hook that caught a whole new generation of fans.

Eras arrives in the 2010s, and Scott Mills brings Kylie's story up to the present day.

05Kylie Minogue: 5. The Interview2023080820230909 (R2)
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Scott Mills chats to Kylie Minogue about her career highlights from the past 35 years.