Here’s what’s coming up on Sunday Night this week.
ABBA
Thirty years ago one of the world’s biggest sex symbols and music superstars vanished almost overnight. Agnetha Faltskog was the beautiful blonde in ABBA, the Swedish super group who split suddenly after 10 years of worldwide success. For the past three decades little has been heard or seen of the mysterious pop queen, who was married to fellow ABBA band member Bjorn Ulvaeus. Life was different in 1977 when the band toured Australia and ABBA-mania was born. More than 160,000 people watched the 11 concerts and for Agnetha the pressure of fame was starting to show. Apart from giving a handful of newspaper interviews decades ago, Agnetha, now a 62-year-old grandmother, withdrew from the world and raised her children on a remote island. Now she is back in the limelight, with her first original solo album in more than two decades, A, to be released on May 10. In this world exclusive and Sunday Night special, reporter Rahni Sadler travels to the island to spend time getting to know Agnetha, and nothing is off limits. A never-to-be-forgotten interview, the notoriously private star opens up about her life, her reclusiveness, her failed marriage, her love of Australia and her life today. She even sings ABBA’s music again for the first time since the early 80s.
MRS BROWN’S BOYS
Brendan O’Carroll is the creator and artistic genius behind the hit TV series and stage show Mrs Brown’s Boys, in which he plays foul-mouthed Irish matriarch Agnes Brown. His amazing life journey so far is a rags to riches to rags and back to riches rollercoaster. In this exclusive profile, Brendan takes reporter Ross Coulthart back to where it all began in Dublin’s tough working class suburbs. At nine years old, Brendan’s father died from asbestosis and not long after he was diagnosed dyslexic. By 12, he’d left school to work as a milkman’s assistant. Brendan married at 19 and six years later thought he’d made it when he bought a pub, but his partner skipped town leaving him heavily in debt. Despair saw Brendan give stand-up comedy a try. It was the beginning of a golden show business career, but he still managed to lose everything one more time when his investment in a movie went belly up. Today, Brendan is a multi-millionaire comedian, scriptwriter and actor with a blockbuster show heading to Australia.
QUEEN OF AUSSIE ROCK
Two weeks ago Aussie legend and lead singer of the Divinyls Chrissy Amphlett died in a New York hospital at the far-too-young age of 53. She was courageous to the very last, just as she was during Sunday Night’s recent stories charting her battles against Multiple Sclerosis and breast cancer. A little over a year ago, on her very last visit to Australia, Chrissy invited our cameras to capture one of her last song writing sessions. It was a magical moment in musical history. Watch, listen and reminisce.
Sunday, May 5 on Channel Seven at 6.30pm.