In Nancy Mitford’s 1949 novel Love in a Cold Climate, narrator Fanny admits that “ever since I could remember, some delicious image had been enshrined in my heart, last thought at night, first thought in the morning”. She makes a list – long, various and ever-changing – comprised of the dashing men who have been the subject of her girlish fantasies, including Lord Byron, Napoleon and “the guard on the 4.45”. And wasn’t it ever thus? For me, between the years 2001 and 2002, the image was of Lee Ryan from Blue.
During the Nineties and early Noughties, there were millions of girls like me, lying prostrate with longing as they dreamed of their own personal pop prince. As new BBC Two documentary series Boybands Forever illustrates, these infatuations were literally like a fever; intense, all-consuming and sometimes prone to cause fainting. Fans were not simply fans – “You’re in a relationship with your favourite member,” explains presenter Jayne Middlemiss.
