New Top of the Pops?

So the BBC is planning to revive it's "pop" music coverage according to the BBC News website, and is seeking to launch a replacement for TOTP, which was "axed" in 2006.

Oh my. I wonder what it will be called? And will it come from Salford? And when will it air? And will it feature Kate Silverton in any way?????

So many questions and so little time..........


oops, forgot the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11111296

It will be hard developing a pop music series that will appeal to a mainstream audience, given how music is marketed these days - one look at the proliferation of (pedestrian) music video channels.

Going for a niche market won't work - that appeared to be Andi Peters' aim when he took over production of TOTP in 2003, but it turned into a fatal disaster. And targeting the youth market also contradicts the BBC's plan to drop that section.

It would be good to see a programme that gets the right mix of new music, chart action and a presenting/production team that care about music and live performance, and also satisfy a cross-section of music fans. Whether it's branded as "Top of the Pops" (which in my heart I'd like to see return - but ideally in its 1970s/early 1980s or 1994-1997 Blaxill era formats) or something else. The Sunday slot following the announcement of the new Top 40, as in the last year of weekly TOTP, also worked for me as it made the programme fresh, and that slot now is no longer competing with soap operas on ITV1. Tie-ins with BBC Radio would also work - not just Radio 1, but Radio 2 and 6 Music.

So I take it Fearne Cotton, Jimmy Savile and Andi Peters will have £500 each every week to try and wreck as much of the music industry as possible? Not that Clubland hasn't already achieved that...

They mentioned a TOTP season on BBC Four didn't they?

It'll be interesting to see what gets repeated!

Isn't there a 1970 TOTP only existing in B & W being restored to colour ala Dads Army/Are You Being Served?

Hopefully not the same editions of TOTP or TOTP2 that are usually repeated.

It would be nice to see some Noel Edmonds-hosted episodes, for those of us who haven't access to Eins Festival (who had a TOTP night this evening, apparently) and, on the whole, editions that reflect the whole TOTP era - including "Year Zero" and the Peters era and regular weekly shows instead of Christmas shows; mixed in with the existing documentaries, although it would be nice to get a new one of those if possible

Add to that, new episode of TOTP2 where Radcliffe doesn't talk over half of the edited-down performance of overplayed mainstream chart hits (but keep the original graphics in by all means!). I'd say top of my list is the recent "found" episodes played at the past few Kaleidoscope events, but that'll never happen.

Meh, I'm a right diva.



First I've heard of that, to be honest, although my contact with TOTP fans isn't as strong as it used to be.

I am unsure if there's sufficient data on the masters of the monochrome episodes to retrieve the necessary colour information from. Although c.15 minutes of the start of one show (25.1.1970) is intact in colour, I'd rather see the full episode broadcast in monochrome (and in 4:3 and DOG-less...sorry) than a spliced version that starts off in colour and then turns black and white.

Let me guess. Myleene Klass is the bookies' favourite to present...

It's on this site - http://colour-recovery.wikispaces.com/ - I think it's a colour one freshly transferred to film for use in experiements, unless there is something else going on!

Noggin, as sharp as a tack as ever! I wonder if Myleene has shares in William Hill?

Slightly off topic, the copy of 'Dr Who - Ambassadors Of Death' that UK Gold used to screen that was frankly a bit **** & I suppose most people bought the part coloured VHS to replace the off air copy(I did!), has BBC Worldwide upgraded it's sales copy to a full B & W 'Vidfired' copy as they should've done IMO?

No, at present IIRC, they are scanning the original prints & are (or will be in the near future) working on recolouring the episodes via the colour-recovery & traditional recolouring experiments, much like how they did for Planet Of The Daleks episode 3.

As it currently stands Ambassadors will be out by 2013, when the BBC/2|e plan to have all existing episodes out on DVD. It is thought that Mind Of Evil will be the last Pertwee to be released as all six episodes need colour adding to them. However release dates for these two (along with Invasion Of The Dinosaurs) is still TBA

My money (!) is more on Jonathan Shalit having shares...