Top of the Pops (1964–2023) User Reviews (5)

Well loved British pop show

[glenn-aylett · 8/10 · 29 December 2013]

I know the show's image has been tarnished by Jimmy Savile, but if you overlook this, Top of the Pops was a well loved and well made pop show in the seventies and eighties. At its height, TOTP had 14 million viewers and while older, male viewers would moan about the long haired rock bands, they always watched for the resident female dancers, Pans People and Legs and Co.

TOTP was a chart show where groups and singers performed their hits to a studio audience. Until 1982, when a group was unavailable to perform, the dancers would perform a routine to their music. Also the show was hosted for its first 27 years by BBC DJs, which helped popularise their radio shows. In the eighties the dancers and orchestra were phased out and the show developed more of a party atmosphere and also pop videos and a review of the American charts were introduced.

I would give TOTP ten stars, but for the way the BBC messed it around in the nineties. Insisting acts sang live, rather than miming, was a disaster as rave acts in particular sounded dreadful live and replacing Radio 1 DJs with unknowns was a bad move. Then the BBC steadily lost faith with the show and moved it to BBC Two, where it endured a slow death.

However, for the first 25 years, TOTP was an excellent show and well loved by viewers and musicians alike. Re runs on BBC Four are always worth watching.

The Good Old Days

[robert-jalberg7 · 31 October 2003]

I may be only 25, but I already feel like I'm way too old for TOTP. That is a real pity because up until the early 90s it felt like this was a national institution would be stay with me forever.

I guess most people think that, but the way in which TOTP has lost its importance is startling and sad. Of course, the current state of the music charts is mainly to blame, and the fact that there are dozens of music TV channels now.

I don't know what it was like in the 60s and 70s but you can't argue with audience figures of 15-16 million, while it now gets 2 million if it's lucky.

The shows I remember in the 80s were fun, colourful and lively; where the performers and the audience were out for fun. However, it now seems cynical, trashy and monotonous. I mean who can forget when The Brat performed "Chalk Dust" with a mock tennis court and umpire judge, and then of course there was the classic "Jocky Wilson" moment with Dexy's Midnight Runners.

Perhaps because I am a 80s child and remember when the charts were interesting, i.e. songs climbed up the charts to a position which (usually) justified the song. Now anything can go straight in at number one if they have appeared in a TV programme, or it's been played in a nightclub in Ayia Napa, or features some anodyne blonde blue-eyed rubbish boy band.

Anyway, I should stop moaning and remember the good old days.

bottom of the pops

[mufdivtwo · 1/10 · 17 June 2006]

i was born in 1967 so i can remember watching top of the pops from the early seventies to its peak which was the early 1980s. beyond that i think it has gone downhill which is a shame because it is our longest running show in great Britain and to watch it in 2006 is so disappointing. the presenters for a start don't fit bring back Reggie Yates! he is cool and his face fits! and Ferne cotton is OK but the rest! get rid! i think totps best era was in the middle 60's IE 1966-1969 and then from 1970-1971

after that in my opinion it had lost its appeal and by the way, the BBC shouldn't have wiped all those 60s editions of totps. time has shown that people like to re watch the old black and white editions. plus there was so many good groups and singers around in those days!

When music mattered

[lawrenceconwayvulcan · 23 February 2017]

I started to watch Top of the Pops in 1987. this was when the cookie cutter factory of Stock, Aitken and Watermen producing hits that sounded the same even if they performed by different acts and just around the corner was the faceless House music craze which just turned me off. The early 1990's saw the show hosted by a bunch of people who nobody had ever heard of before or since. The mid 1990's saw a slight upturn as some interesting music was being produced but then came Louis Walsh with his identikit boy bands. In 2003 Top of the Pops was given over to (extremley annoying)Kids TV presenter turned media exec Andi Peters who tried to make the show hip but all unwatchable and TOTP ended with a whimper in 2006. Peters by the way now hosts 3 minute phone in quiz segments on Breakfast TV.

However you can remind yourself that when the show was good it was good with the repeats on BBC4. They currently on 1983. There has been eclectic mix of acts with likes of U2, Duran Duran, The Style Council, Bucks Fizz and Bonnie Tyler performing in the studio.

A word of warning for those who do not watch the BBC4 repeats as yet, some editions are not shown. Those presented by 2 men who committed vile acts are not shown on understandable grounds of taste and decency and those presented by the late Mike Smith are not shown as he refused permission when he was alive and his widow Sarah Greene has carried on with his wishes.

All it is is music performances and a chart rundown

[Greatwhitewhale · 19 October 2003]

I tend to switch over when someone rubbish plays. But when someone good plays, I watch. I find the presenters quite annoying, they need comedians like Johnny Vegas not Fearne Cotton! And it's such a BBC programme, it bigs up Lame Academy!