Heartthrobs of the 90s

Remember those heady days when your bedroom walls were covered with posters of the dishiest heart-throbs of the moment, and schoolwork took second place to studying every aspect of your teen-dream's life?

This superb special salutes those lush lovelies of the 90s who filled every teenager's thoughts the length of the country (and those of a few middle-aged mums). Interviews with the celebrities who crept into the dreams of every 90s youth are interspersed with archive footage of the stars in their heyday. There are also contributions from the very fans who were willing to follow their hero wherever they went, in the hope of catching just one more glimpse of them. Amongst those who graced the covers of teen magazines throughout the land are Take That, who burst onto the scene with a generous helping of fine looks, and even a bit of talent to boot. Of course it goes without saying that Take That spawned a whole generation of boybands throughout the decade, and this special explores the nature of the legion of manufactured bands, from the staying power of Boyzone and Backstreet Boys to the TV spin-off of S Club 7. But the girls also had their fair share of adulation in the pop world, from the Girl Power of The Spice Girls, to the Southern Lolita herself, Britney Spears.

It wasn't just the stars of the pop world who were top of the pin-up list. Film stars like Leonardo di Caprio were adored the world over; models such as Cindy Crawford became a brand in themselves; and the 90s was the decade that saw sportsmen being fully marketed as pin-up material, with David Beckham leading the way, and Anna Kournikova following closely behind.

But where lies the future of the heart-throb? Web-rings and web-shrines have finally brought the pin-up full circle, with the young of the new millennium now being able to access the golden-boy pin-ups of yesteryear - in fact do we even need real pin-ups with computer graphic lovelies like Lara Croft now stirring the loins of the young?