Greatest Days (formerly titled the The Band) is a Jukebox Musical using the songs of Take That! written by Tim Firth about a group of teenage friends who reunite 25 years later to attend the reunion concert of the favourite Boy Band. In 2023 it was adapted into a movie staring Aisling Bea and Alice Lowe.
Provides examples of:
- Accents Aren't Hereditary: In the film, Rachel and her parents have Irish accents while her younger brother doesn't, suggesting they moved to Clitheroe before her brother was born, but Rachel having attended Debbie's sixth birthday party would seem to suggest that she should also have more of a Lancashire accent if she's been living in Clitheroe since she was six.
- Advertising by Association: The film version was advertised as "From the writer of Calendar Girls".
- Commitment Issues: Jeff has proposed to Rachel multiple times, but she keeps putting him off, to the point where it's become a running joke between the two of them. She had previously given him fairly mundane practical reasons like saving their money rather than spending it on a wedding, but eventually she realises she'd been afraid to commit because she still hadn't dealt with her grief over Debbie's death and the break-up of their friendship group as a result.
- The Cover Changes the Meaning: Some songs are more distanced from their original context when they were first released in the charts than others:
- "A Million Love Songs" goes from being a pretty conventional love song to being used as a eulogy for Debbie.
- "Back for Good" goes from being a break-up song to a song about the main characters wanting to reconnect with their past selves.
- Creator Cameo: In the film adaptation, band members Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald briefly appear as buskers on a train in Athens, performing an acoustic version of their song "Shine".
- Oop North: The girls grew up together in Clitheroe in Lancashire.
- Product Placement: "Shine" isn't much more than a musical number structured around an extended EasyJet product placement.
- Tagline: For the film — "Never forget".
