TUNED IN: Bands on screen

The new British kids’ drama Almost Never (5pm, CBBC, and as a box set on iPlayer) follows boy band The Wonderland. Here’s a look at them and other bands within TV shows…

The Monkees Created for US TV in response to The Beatles (the casting ad called for ‘Four insane boys, aged 17-21’), The Monkees took on a life of their own beyond the TV show, which ran from 1966-68, selling 75 million records worldwide. It’s not over, either. Mike Nesmith and Micky Dolenz toured last year, and the band released their first Christmas album.

S Club 7 Pop Idol creator Simon Fuller came up with the idea for the S Club TV series, a sitcom about a struggling pop group, after he was fired from managing the Spice Girls. From 1999 to 2003, a string of globetrotting shows and a film ( Seeing Double) made stars of S Club (centre), who made four albums and picked up two Brit Awards. They split in 2003, but, like The Monkees, they still tour with a reduced line-up – S Club 3 is made up of Jo O’Meara, Bradley McIntosh and Tina Barrett.

The Wonderland Three boys were picked from thousands to make up the main band in Almost Never: there’s joker Oakley (Oakley Orchard, probably the most experienced performer of the trio), his cautious brother, Harry (singer-songwriter Harry Still), and front man Nate (Nathaniel Dass, a singer and guitarist).