Top of the Pops

The Jakki Brambles and Simon Mayo show was interesting, they're clearly not the kind of hip, trendy DJ that would appear post-Bannister (I know Mayo stayed on Radio 1 till 2001), but they're also far away from the cheesy style of the stereotypical Smashie and Nicey DJ.

The 1990-91 TOTP presenter roster wasn't so bad - I'd rank them:

Mark Goodier
Jakki Brambles
Gary Davies (I think he's unfairly bracketed in the 'Smashey and Nicey' category, and I'm happy he's got a new lease of life on Radio 2 today)
Simon Mayo
Bruno Brookes
Nicky Campbell

Anthea Turner
(line space intentional)

I think it says a lot that Simon, Mark, Bruno and Nicky were brought back in 1994; had Ric Blaxill arrived as producer a year earlier, I reckon we'd have seen Gary and Jakki again too before their R1 departures.

I think that's because of the mid-Atlantic, mannered presenter voice that he puts on, or at least used to put on, similar to Mark Goodier and Bruno Brookes, whereas the likes of Mayo and Brambles seem to just use their own natural accent.

Interesting that you put Mark Goodier at the top, there's someone on Popscene who seems to despise him. Though it seems they only post on there to complain that pretty much every post-1987 episode is "an awful racket presented by grinning morons with no interest in the music".

Yep a genuine joy to hear revived-oldie Gary Davies back on the radio.

Episode guides aside, I've not visited the Popscene forum, despite being a founder member, in a long time.

The last time I posted, I was criticised by someone (who I believe has since died) for using 'episode' instead of 'edition', which, following other unsavoury past incidents, made me feel it necessary to shut up and move on...

I'm still in contact with many of the members on other platforms, though.

I remember at one point the Popscene forum was full of Yewtree sceptics, which was a bit off-putting.

I've just searched '#totp anthea turner' on Twitter to see other people's impressions of her presenting skills and this was the first thing that came up. Wonder if it'll be edited out on BBC Four…

Anthea Turner's on #totp tonight which reminds me of the time she congratulated the KLF on being number one and "looking like the Ku Klux Klan" pic.twitter.com/LR6z96Sy2W

— Neil Miles (@neilsmiles) December 20, 2019

Whatever you think of Nicky Campbell's TOTP presenter skills, whenever one of his editions is on BBC4 he's on Twitter replying to people insulting him, which much suprise a fair few of them!

Goodier's harmless really. There's the odd slightly cringeworthy moment from him every now and then but I find it hard to hate him on any level. If you're talking about the same contributor that I'm thinking of, they keep saying they know he was a yes-man to the higher ups at R1 through an insider they supposedly once spoke to, and also made some bizarre comment about being told of another potential banned presenter after Smithy who wasn't named. That of course never transpired in the end.

Someone else on there was attempting to stick up for Anthea Turner recently as well, saying she was just trying to sound enthusiastic and appeal to children. Not sure how she can be defended when we've just seen several years of Janice Long showing how enthusiasm can be done on a pop show without coming across as a bit of a berk!

That's so ridiculously anal, I don't think even people on here would be that particular!

That said, it *is* tradition to refer to the people who take part on Mastermind as "contenders" rather than "contestants"...