Out With A 4m Whimper

Jul 31, 2006 · 2 minute read

If nothing else, the final edition of TOTP showed that even at the very end, the BBC didn’t have a clue what to do with the show. It was a very embarrassed affair, like the producers knew they should be doing something special, but all they had to offer was a selection of clips long worn-out by repeated showings on TOTP2 and the increasingly-scary sight of Jimmy Saville. To fill in the gaps, the horrors of the 1980s Radio 1 team were dug out of commercial radio hell, making inane and self-satisfied comments until you were begging for Matthew Bannister to make a surprise cameo and fire them all over again.

(some of the choices during the decade compilations were a little odd too - why would you stick Prince in the 90s? Where were The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays? The Reynolds Girls? Bis? etc.)

Could it have been better? Well, given ten minutes, anybody who’d watched the show at any point during the last forty years could have come up with somethign a little better than a documentary that ended with Jamie Theakston saying “and Top of The Pops is going from strength to strength”, followed by a 10-minute “oops” coda.

2006, then. The death of Smash Hits and TOTP. A nation weeps. Or shuffles its feet and gets on with things. But mourning for TOTP seems a bit pointless. The brand is still alive, shows with its name on are still being made, and I have no doubt that a BBC1 controller will bring it back within the next ten years. It’s just a little break sniffle.

And the less said about the final episode of The West Wing, the better, really…