TalkTalk Telecom Group PLC (LSE: TALK) (commonly known as TalkTalk Group, trading as TalkTalk) is a company which provides pay television, telecommunications and internet access services to businesses and consumers in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 2003 as a subsidiary of The Carphone Warehouse plc and was demerged as a standalone company in March 2010. It is headquartered in London.

Originally just a provider of fixed line telephony services to consumers, TalkTalk now offers fixed and mobile telephony and broadband services to consumers under the TalkTalk and AOL Broadband brands, and telephony and broadband services to business customers under the TalkTalk Business brand. Like some other UK broadband providers, TalkTalk has invested in its own exchange infrastructure, known as Local Loop Unbundling (LLU), with 72% of its customers base unbundled as of December 2009.

TalkTalk is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

TalkTalk launched in February 2003 after the acquisition of Opal Telecom in November 2002. The acquisition meant The Carphone Warehouse now had its own switching network providing access to BT Wholesale's landline network for the first time. An initial trial was conducted in the Manchester region. Three months later, TalkTalk was launched with the slogan "landline calls for less", and a guarantee that calls would be cheaper than with their perceived chief competitor, British Telecom.

A group is a number of things or persons being in some relation to one another.

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The Hon. Diana "Dido" Harding is an English businessperson, the current Chief Executive of the TalkTalk Group.

Harding is the daughter of Lord Harding, and the grand daughter of Field Marshal John Harding, 1st Baron Harding of Petherton, who commanded the Desert Rats in World War II. Raised on the family pig farm in Dorset, she was educated at St Antony's Leweston from 1978–85. She then graduated from the University of Oxford in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, where she studied under Vernon Bogdanor and alongside David Cameron; and then at Harvard Business School, gaining an MBA.

On graduation she joined management consultancy McKinsey & Company. Leaving to become marketing director at Thomas Cook Group, she was then appointed commercial director at Woolworths Group. She then joined Tesco within Sir Terry Leahy's office as international support director, before being appointed commercial director of “added-value foods” in 2001.

Resigning her position in October 2007, she joined the Board of Directors at Sainsbury's as Convenience Director. She was named CEO of Talktalk^[when?], during the period when the group split its Carphone Warehouse retail operation from the group telecoms operation. She was appointed a non-executive director of British Land plc in January 2010.

Claire Ann Richards (born 17 August 1977)^{[citation needed]} is an English singer best known for being a member of Steps from 1997 to 2001 and again from 2011. She was a contestant on the second series of Popstar to Operastar before being voted off in the Semi Finals. Richards possesses the vocal range of a soprano.

Richards began her career in the pop trio TSD with Cossie and Bonnie. They had little success and were dropped by their record label after the release of their second single "Baby I Love You". Richards went on to work as a receptionist for seven months, winning the temporary worker of the month award for May 1997.

Richards auditioned for the lineup that would become Steps. She was offered a place in the group on the condition that she lost weight. Steps were formed by Steve Crosby & Barry Upton (writers of "5, 6, 7, 8") alongside Manager Tim Byrne after auditioning hopefuls who answered an ad in The Stage newspaper. Byrne had previously been involved in the production of the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party, the BBC collaboration with the pop magazine, Smash Hits. Byrne was looking to manufacture a band in order to release "5, 6, 7, 8" as a one-hit wonder. After auditions, the original line-up of H, Lisa, Maddy, Derek and Mitch was finalised and the band started shooting promotional images and recording tracks. However, Maddy, Derek and Mitch left, as they wanted more than a one-hit wonder, and saw no long-term future with Steps. New auditions were held on 7 May 1997, this time with H and Lisa acting as the judging panel, and they selected Faye, Lee and Claire as the remaining members.

Gary Barlow (born 20 January 1971) is an English singer-songwriter, pianist and record producer. He is frontman and lead vocalist of pop group Take That and the head judge on the The X Factor. Barlow is one of Britain's most successful songwriters. He has had two Number 1 singles and a Number 1 album as a solo artist, and has had sixteen top 5 hits, eleven Number 1 singles and seven Number 1 albums with Take That. He is also a six-time recipient of the Ivor Novello Award and has sold over 45 million records worldwide with Take That.

In Barlow's autobiography, he relates that his love of music began at an early age.

"I was one of those kids that's forever dancing in front of the TV looking at my reflection."

He said he enjoyed watching Top of the Pops on television, and when he was ten years old, he watched an episode of the programme in which Depeche Mode were performing their new single "Just Can't Get Enough". Barlow was mesmerised by the sound and decided he wanted a keyboard for Christmas. For the next few years, he spent most of his spare time teaching himself to play his favourite songs.