For all Michael Hurll’s efforts in dragging Top of the Pops kicking and screaming into the ’80s and turning it into a dazzling celebration of pop music instead of a dreary light entertainment show, he keeps coming up against one … read more
There’s an almighty gap in the BBC Four reruns here as we skip three whole episodes, starting with this Dave Lee Travis-fronted edition. No doubt the Daily Mail would be disgusted to realise that people ever watched it on its … read more
“Hi.” Hi yourself, Peter Powell, in your monogrammed shirt, white blazer with the sleeves rolled up and, let’s not beat about the bush here, beige slacks. Powell seems to have taken on the mantle of “senior presenter” of TOTP recently, … read more
“Welcome to Top of the Pops! Some 19 million people every week tune in to see some of the top acts of 1981 on this show!” That’s what Mike Read tells us, and as one of the co-authors of the … read more
Another week, another two editions of TOTP on BBC Four as we attempt to crack on through the whole year before the Proms, the Olympics and whatever else has been displaced by the closure of BBC Three as a linear … read more
So it seems Richard Skinner wasn’t in Scotland all week with the other Radio 1 DJs, as the Radio Times seems to suggest. Although his evening show was billed as including sessions from Scottish bands, he must have been in … read more
So the industrial dispute we were pretending wasn’t happening last week has been resolved, the audience has been allowed back out of the tiny airless booths from where they were encouraged to cheer and applaud in sound only, and everything’s … read more
Up next on BBC1, another edition of Let’s Pretend Nothing’s Wrong And This Is Just A Normal Edition Of Top Of The Pops Even Though It’s Painfully Obvious That There’s Another Strike On And We’re Desperately Stringing Pre-Recorded Clips Together … read more
Now then, here’s someone we haven’t seen since last September when he was playing second, in fact third fiddle to Leo Sayer and Russ Abbot. Now, six months later, Mike Read is Radio 1’s hottest property, having inherited the breakfast … read more
Doesn’t time fly? We’re certainly powering through the run on BBC Four now they’ve started showing two editions every week, and as they’re still skipping the ones hosted by Dave Lee Travis it’s possible to get through a short month … read more
“You’re right, it’s Top of the Pops!” confirms knowledgeable Richard Skinner before anyone’s even had a chance to ask the question. This week it appears that Skinner is being remodeled, in an attempt to cast off his stuffy image and … read more
Well, this is awkward. Keen to get 1981 over and done with as soon as possible, BBC Four have hit the turbo button and scheduled two editions per week for the foreseeable future, meaning that the idea of the show … read more
