THIRTY-SOMETHING women’s hearts will be racing this Christmas after it has emerged that Take That, the biggest boy band of the early 1990s, will reform for a television special.

Only Williams has maintained chart success since Take That split a decade ago. Gary Barlow had two early hits but now writes for other artists, and Mark Owen’s career was briefly reignited after he won Celebrity Big Brother in 2002. Both Jason Orange and Howard Donald stopped singing to become an actor and a DJ, respectively.

Now the original members have agreed to reform for a one-off concert and Christmas TV show that will chronicle the band’s rise and fall.

Williams has agreed to take part in the programme despite a well-publicised, acrimonious split with Take That in 1995, according to a Sunday newspaper.

News of the reunion came as Robbie Williams, the band’s most successful former member, was expected to reveal songs from his forthcoming album, Intensive Care, at his first big concert of the year in Berlin last night.

After his appearance at Live8 in Hyde Park in July, and a string of secret club gigs in Paris, London and Amsterdam during the past two weeks, Williams was due to perform a selection of new songs, including Ghosts, Sin Sin Sin and Make Me Pure, together with old favourites such as Millennium and Angels.

The show, at the 8,000capacity Velodrom, marked the start of a campaign that Williams’s management and marketing team hope will propel Intensive Care to the top of the charts when it is released on October 24.

Having signed Williams for an advance widely reported to be in the region of £80 million in 2002, EMI is pinning its hopes on the new album. The record company would be more than happy to see Williams emulate the success of other artists on its books, such as Coldplay, and break into the American market.

More pressing, perhaps, is the failure of Tripping, the first single from the new album, to reach the No 1 slot in the new UK singles chart, announced yesterday. It was held off by the Sugababes’ song Push the Button. Cathy Cremer, director of communications at EMI, said: “If you look at the pattern of Robbie’s sales, every album has sold more than the previous one. He is a high- priority artist. We firmly believe that his career is still on an upward curve.”

The decision to coincide the album’s launch with a show in Berlin was intended to draw attention to Williams’s standing in Germany, where his popularity is at an all-time high; but pop commentators have questioned the singer’s decision to part company with his long-time collaborator, Guy Chambers.

The superstar’s new album was co-written and produced by Stephen Duffy, 45, a former member of Duran Duran. EMI insist that Duffy has pushed Williams to new creative heights. Williams’s last new studio album, Escapology, released in 2002, sold 7 million copies worldwide.

Take That’s Christmas special on ITV, being made by Talkback Thames, will feature a short concert, interviews with the former bandmates and behind the scenes footage. It is being produced to coincide with the release of a new greatest hits album and a DVD.

Take That sold more than 9 million albums and 10 million singles. Teenage girls flocked to their concerts and were inconsolable when the band split. Telephone counsellors had to be drafted in to help fans to come to terms with their disappointment.

Many British fans switched their allegiance to Williams as a solo artist, but none of his shows are scheduled to take place in Britain until next year at the earliest.

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