The band was created as a feature in a BBC television documentary, which was first broadcast on 28th May 2007. The feature of forming the band and recording a single was intended to give a voice to the feelings of isolation and imprisonment now suffered by many elderly people.

The Zimmers have released one single, a cover of The Who's "My Generation" (#26 UK), on 28 May 2007. The song is produced by Mike Hedges, the video shot by Geoff Wonfor, and it was recorded in the legendary Beatles Studio 2 at Abbey Road

Documentary-maker Tim Samuels travelled Britain, investigating the feelings of isolation and imprisonment suffered by the country's elderly, as part of the BBC's "Power to the People" series. Samuels recruits pensioners otherwise stuck in institutions and towerblocks, and they air their grievances, culminating in the recording of the group's first single, where the group "sticks it back to the society that has cast them aside".

Around 40 people appear on the "My Generation" track and video, with a total age of around 3,000 years. Among them are:

Winifred Warburton (99)
Eric Whitty (69)
Tim O'Donovan (81)
Joan Bennett
Barry Foy (69) (Drums)
Alf Carretta (90) (Lead singer)
Gillian (Deddie) Davies (69)
Peter Oakley ("geriatric1927") (79)
Buster Martin (100)
John Tree
Bubbles Tree
Grace Cook (83)
Charlotte Cox (84)
Irene Samain
Joanna Judge
Jessie Thomason (85)
Vera Welch (80)
Ann Sherwin (79)
Norma Walker

Deddie Davies (born Gillian Davies, 2 March 1938, Bridgend, Wales) is a British character actor.

She is most familiar to television viewers for comedy roles in a host of series, including The Rag Trade, That's My Boy and Chance in a Million. She usually appears in meek, spinsterish roles. She has also appeared in non-comedic roles in series such as The Bill, Upstairs Downstairs and Grange Hill.

Most recently she scored unexpected musical success as a member of superannuated pop group The Zimmers, whose cover of My Generation highlighted the plight of the elderly and reached number 26 in the UK singles chart in May 2007.

Peter Oakley (born August 1927) is a pensioner from England. He is better known by his pseudonym geriatric1927 on the popular video sharing website YouTube.
Making his YouTube debut in August, 2006 with a series of five-to-ten minute autobiographical videos entitled Telling it all, his posts gained immediate popularity with a wide section of the YouTube community, a leading member of the much-heralded Web 2.0 generation of web sites.

Amongst the autobiographical details revealed in his videos are the fact that he served as a radar mechanic during World War II, has had a lifelong love of motorcycles, and that he currently lives alone as a widower and pensioner in England.

His unforeseen and meteoric rise has been widely reported by international media outlets and online news sources and blogs, gaining YouTube much publicity along the way. After resisting all media attention for a long time (including requests for interviews, photographs, and attempts to identify him), insisting that he only wished to converse with the YouTube community in an informal and personal way, Oakley finally gave his first interview for the BBC's The Money Programme which was aired on BBC 2 on 16 February 2007.

By mid-2006, geriatric1927 was the most subscribed user on YouTube. His rise to the #1 position took place in just over a week. It is noteworthy that in the process he displaced users who had been around since the site's launch over a year prior, including NBC-signed Brooke Brodack.

Oakley had 30,000 subscribers as of November 25, 2006, and over 40,000 subscribers as of April 6, 2007. He is currently ninth overall on the 'Most Subscribed List' and he is the eighth most subscribed director.

Buster Martin (born September 1, 1906) is believed to be the United Kingdom's oldest employee at the age of 100. Martin works for Pimlico Plumbers in London as a van cleaner, and notably refused to take a day off on his 100th birthday. Martin also received coverage in the media for fending off an attack from a group of youths in late February 2007; his heroics were cited by the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell as "living proof of why people should not be written off once they pass retirement age". Martin stated that he will not retire from working, he stated "They will have to carry me out in a wooden box!"

I suppose the moral in this True-life story is that you are never too old to follow your dream, As long as you are surrounded by like-minded people, you can do anything. (There is another documentary by the way, as the Zimmers took America by storm-Which is more than most young British music groups have done!!)
Onwards and upwards Guys, and don't let the B******s grind you down.

Still Working-plumber Buster Martin ran Sunday's Roding Valley half marathon in Essex in five hours 13 minutes, and is now focusing on London's 26-mile event.
On finishing the run, the first words of the ex-member of rock band The Zimmers were: "Where's my beer?"

Mr Martin, who has 17 children, started work at Pimlico Plumbers in London three years ago because he was bored after retiring again!!

He drank a tankard of ale before signing autographs and chatting to fans near the finish line of the Essex race.

Next Month, (October 2007) The Zimmers will perform at an age concern fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrat Conference, THIS SHOULD LIVEN THINGS UP A BIT!!