Music

8. Guest presenters
‘TOTP’ had flirted with these since the early 1980s, when producer Michael Hurll tried pairing pop stars with Radio 1 DJs (sample line from August 1980: Tommy Vance: ‘Do you like disco, Roger?’ Roger Daltrey: ‘No, I hate it!’ Vance: ‘Well that’s a shame, because here’s the Village People and “Can’t Stop The Music”!’). Rick Blaxill revived the idea in the mid ’90s. We have fond memories of Harry Hill and Jarvis Cocker (the latter wearing an ‘I Hate Wet Wet Wet’ T-shirt); we were rather more baffled by Frankie Dettori, Chris Eubank and Jeremy cocking Clarkson.

9. The Album Chart
Clueless producers had given this a go every few years since 1971, when the show expanded from 25 minutes to 45 minutes and producer Stanley Dorfman started programming 15-minute excerpts from prog classics like ‘Tales From Topographic Oceans’. More recently it became an ill-advised regular fixture (hmm, let’s check out how Katie Melua and Il Divo are getting on…). Feature continues

10. Over-managment
Too many gimmicks, too much obsessive change for change’s sake, too many attempts to look ‘cool’ and ‘relevant’, too many pretty and vacuous fashion-victim presenters… Pop music always works best when you don’t think about it too much.

See also Steve Williams’s excellent ‘TOTP’ history on www.offthetelly.co.uk

‘Top Of The Pops: The Final Countdown’, July 30, 7-8pm; BBC2

After 42 years, over a thousand shows, ten different theme tunes, hundreds of truly terrible performances and too many cringemaking presenters to call to mind, TOTP bows out tonight. This retrospective celebrates five decades of greatest bits, which will hopefully include a hefty slab of material circa 1977 and 1978, in particular that classic three minutes on March 9 1979 when David Jensen introduced Legs & Co doing their routine to the Sex Pistols’ ‘Something Else’. Priceless. What they’ll do for the other 50 minutes we’ve no idea, but we’re promised a happy studio reunion for the likes of Sir Jimmy Savile, Tony Blackburn, Mike Read and Pat Sharp, plus key archive performances from megastars such as Madonna, Wham, Beyoncé, Take That and The Rolling Stones, among others. Then Alison Moyet or ‘Pop Idol’ winner Michelle McManus will do the final song so that Edith Bowman can exit with ‘It ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings’ (okay, we made that last bit up).

Top Of The Pops: The True Story, July 30, 10-11.10pm BBC2

Repeat outing for this documentary about the one-time hit music show, with a few new bits thrown in. Lots of reminiscing and choice footage from both performers and presenters, including Suggs, Blondie, Holly Johnson and Noddy Holder.

Pan's People: Digging the Dancing Queens, July 30, 11.10-11.40pm, BBC2

Repeat documentary lookign behind the smiles and sequins to discover what made the TOTP house dance combo Pan's People tick, including how they prepared for their rountines. Expect oodles of glam.