In the latest issue of Radio Times, Williams describes how he apologised to Barlow: "Within 30 seconds of me saying I was sorry, we had our arms round each other and were rolling on the floor, laughing," he says.

"The silence had been horrible," says Barlow, "so to have resolved matters finally was…just mindblowing. I had the best sleep ever that night. And when I woke up the next day I was just really impatient to get on with things."

Take That are set to appear on Children in Need (19 November), where they will be performing their new single, The Flood. Before that, a new ITV documentary, Take That: Look Back, Don't Stare (13 November), follows the making of their latest album, Progress, and revisits their tumultuous history.

In the documentary, Robbie Williams talks of his vehement desire to outshine Gary Barlow, whose career was floundering just as Williams's was flourishing.

"I wanted to crush him," says Williams, "and I didn't let go. Even when he was down, I didn't let go and for that I'm deeply apologetic. But I needed him to listen to my truth, to validate it for me, and when he did it was a magnificent moment."

The band are clearly happy to be performing together again, yet hindsight tells them that fame is not all it's cracked up to be.

Jason Orange told RT, "Fame is s**t. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I know it's a huge aspiration to young people, but I can't think of one redeeming quality it has, other than an ego caress now and then."

And Robbie Williams has similar thoughts. "Fame? You go from 0 to 1000mph without any idea of where you're headed. Your teenage years are so formative. Normally you'd be out there looking for a job, learning the price of milk. My education was having 100 girls screaming outside my mum's house and her having to keep the curtains shut for the next three years."

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Get the full inside story of the band's split and reconciliation in the new issue of Radio Times, on sale now.
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