BBC4 broadcast oddest ever programme

I was being a bit whimsical, but every single time Top of the Pops is mentioned in the press now, you can see the reaction. I'm not saying it's right, but the assocations are clear, and that's why I'm staggered this repeat run - especially given the hoops they've had to jump through and the news that has broken since it began - is still continuing three and a half years on.

Thanks for the comments on how they did the chart rundown, which are fascinating.

TOTP hit the buffer due to a number of issues, including it being on a Friday night, which to be fair it pointless. Then maybe people think its still all people minning to a recording etc.

Well it was, they made absolutely no secret of that. Still, having the band there did lend it some level of credance to proceedings; as opposed to having a troupe of dancers prancing along to the track.

Killed off by much trendier CD:UK, Pepsi Chart, music television stations, rise in MP3 and associated technologies etc. Outdated, outplaced and forgotten.

I saw the episode of TOTP 1979 that was shown in the small hours of Friday 28 November 2014, and noticed no in-vision presenter. You say there was another one like it with the background commentary by Travis. Are you absolutely sure they can't even show that particular Travis edition, even though he doesn't appear in vision but it's just his voice-overs (from behind the scenes) between songs?

You may not be able to see Travis, but you can still hear him. One argument is that, because he's not in vision, you could mute his voice overs and get someone else to do them instead. But that would cost money this repeat run clearly doesn't have. The budget clearly goes as far as paying someone to edit it down to half an hour and that's it.

I'm dismayed that the BBC don't consider its audience grown up enough, to not see
these TOTPs repeats as historical artefacts of their time, and not airbrush out certain
individuals and performers. I won't invoke Godwin's Law by mentioning a prominent German
chap from the last century, but you don't see him removed from 1930s and 40s footage ?

The difference here being that he wasn't the host of a very popular entertainment show on TV. Different context.

Is it different yes, but we're dealing with historical artefacts from the 1970s, surely they should be left undisturbed, and shown unedited ? There's enough inaccuracy that creeps into history, without deliberately chopping and sanitising it. Who exactly is being protected ?

Probably because if you remove said bloke from all the footage, all you have is a load of people with their right arm 45 degrees in the air for no obvious reason. Anyway, said bloke is only seen in that footage from the viewpoint of history, as there was no mainstream TV service under after the war so lots of it was originally private footage.

But anyway I'm going off on a tangent. A Guardian article says Gary Glitter appearances are edited out of the TOTP repeats, as was Jonathan King originally, until he complained about it. With regards to DLT (and Jimmy Savile for that matter), being the presenter is a different kettle of fish, as you'd be viewable for a significant chunk of the programme...

Yes, but what's that got to do with not showing the programme at all ? TOTP was hardly high class entertainment, but it was at the centre of domestic TV viewing for millions every week. Why do BBC 4 show it, as entertainment ? (probably yes) but surely also as a cultural example of TV from the 70s ? There is no problem (seemingly) with showing present and past images of DLT and Savile on news and current affairs programmes, I find it odd, they are taboo outside of those . By all means label the performances as being those of convicted criminals, but they should still be broadcast, because they are historically significant.

Savile standing in a studio somewhere in some God-awful tracksuit or outfit introducing a music band or video cannot be classed as "historically significant" by any stretch of the imagination regardless of what we now know about him. The other musical acts in the shows he presented may be more significant but the links certainly aren't.

With regards to current affairs - not to feature when it's the leading story everywhere else is censorship.

The fact that the BBC overlooked Top of the Pops' 50th Anniversary this year does go to show that the brand isn't what it used to be.