The end of an era

I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with this show Top of the Pops (TOTP). In case you didn't know, it's a weekly show on BBC that features the top hits of the week. And it's official now: they have pulled the plug on TOTP.

Since its first broadcast in 1964, the show has played centrestage to various artistes ranging from The Rolling Stones to ABBA to Michael Jackson to Spice Girls to Keane. The reasons cited for the end of TOTP was because of competition from other sources of music channels.

For me, this show will always have a special place in my heart. It was the programme that fed me news on what's top & what's not. It was as close as I got to watching these singers/bands perform 'live'. I always wanted that opportunity to be part of the audience in the show but hur-hur, never got to. The nearest thing I did to that was to stop by Studio 3 at the BBC Television Centre in West London (& I saw a bunch of people Q-ing with their tickets to watch TOTP!)

What I get now on BBC Prime (Ch 76) are backdated TOTP shows but that's OK. I hope I don't miss the final one in a week or 2. I don't know what happened to all these chart shows on TV. They have all disappeared. I think they also pulled the plug on the Pepsi Chart show. I still remember Cat Deeley hosting that & that was the show I woke up to on Saturday mornings before going to the gym :(

To TOTP: RIP.