Top of the Pops

''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its history, it was broadcast on Thursday evenings on BBC One. Each show consisted of performances of some of the week's best-selling popular music records, usually excluding any tracks moving down the chart, including a rundown of that week's singles chart. This was originally the Top 20, though this varied throughout the show's history. The Top 30 was used from 1969 and the Top 40 from 1984.

Dusty Springfield's " I Only Want to Be with You" was the first song featured on ''TOTP'', while the Rolling Stones were the first band to perform with " I Wanna Be Your Man". Snow Patrol were the last act to play live on the weekly show when they performed their single " Chasing Cars". Status Quo made more appearances than any other artist, with a total of 106 (the first was with " Pictures of Matchstick Men" in 1968 and last with " The Party Ain't Over Yet" in 2005).

Special editions were broadcast on Christmas Day (and usually, until 1984, a second edition a few days after Christmas), featuring some of the best-selling singles of the year and the Christmas number one. Although the weekly show was cancelled in 2006, the Christmas special continued annually. End-of-year round-up editions have also been broadcast on BBC1 on or around New Year's Eve, albeit largely featuring the same acts and tracks as the Christmas Day shows. In a change of format, the festive specials have not returned since in 2022 and were replaced by an end-of-year review show on BBC Two. It also survives as '' Top of the Pops 2'', which began in 1994 and features vintage performances from the ''Top of the Pops'' archives. Though ''TOTP2'' ceased producing new episodes from 2017, repeats of older episodes are still shown.

The Official Charts Company states that "performing on the show was considered an honour, and it pulled in just about every major player". The show has seen seminal performances over its history. The March 1971 appearance of T. Rex frontman Marc Bolan wearing glitter and satins as he performed " Hot Love" is often seen as the inception of glam rock, and David Bowie's performance of " Starman" inspired future musicians. In the 1990s, the show's format was sold to several foreign broadcasters in the form of a franchise package, and at one point various versions of the show were shown in more than 120 countries. Editions of the programme from 1976 onwards started being repeated on BBC Four in 2011 and are aired on most Friday evenings – as of 2025, the repeat run has reached 1998. Episodes featuring disgraced presenters and artists such as Jimmy Savile, Dave Lee Travis, Ian Watkins ( Lostprophets), Jonathan King, Rolf Harris, Gary Glitter, R. Kelly and Diddy are no longer repeated.

History

Bill Cotton devised the name ''Top of the Pops''. Cotton, Johnnie Stewart and Stanley Dorfman devised the rules which governed how the show would operate: the programme would always end with the number one record, which was the only record that could appear in consecutive weeks. The show would include the highest new entry, and (if not featured in the previous week) the highest climber on the charts, and omit any song going down in the chart.(2005). A record would not appear twice until it had made the Top 30
"Johnnie Stewart Television producer who put Top Of The Pops on top"
. ''The Guardian'', 6 May 2005 Tracks could be featured in consecutive weeks in different formats. For example, if a song was played over the chart countdown or the closing credits, then it was acceptable for the act to appear in the studio the following week.

These rules were sometimes interpreted flexibly. It was originally based on the Top 20. By the 1970s, the Top 30 was being used and the show was extended from thirty to forty-five minutes duration and songs that were featured outside the charts were chosen according to Dorfman and his fellow producer's Melvyn Cornish's personal taste and judgement. The rules were more formally relaxed from 1997 when records descending the charts were featured more regularly, possibly as a response to the changing nature of the Top 40 (in the late 1990s and early 2000s climbers in the charts were a rarity, with almost all singles peaking at their debut position).

When the programme's format changed in November 2003, it concentrated increasingly on the top 10. Later, during the BBC Two era, the top 20 was regarded as the main cut-off point, with the exception made for up and coming bands below the top 20. Singles from below the top 40 (within the top 75) were shown if the band were up and coming or had a strong selling album. If a single being performed was below the top 40, just the words "New Entry" were shown and not the chart position.

The show was originally intended to run for only a few programmes but lasted over 42 years, reaching landmark episodes of 500, 1,000, 1,500 and 2,000 in the years 1973, 1983, 1992 and 2002 respectively.

First edition

The first edition of ''Top of the Pops'' was broadcast on Wednesday, 1January 1964 at 6:35 pm. It was produced in Studio A at Dickenson Road Studios in Rusholme, Manchester.

The first show was presented by Jimmy Savile, with a brief link to Alan Freeman in London to preview the following week's programme. The producer Johnnie Stewart based the show's format on Savile's ''Teen and Twenty Disc Club'' on Radio Luxembourg. The first show featured (in order) Dusty Springfield with " I Only Want to Be with You", the Rolling Stones with " I Wanna Be Your Man", the Dave Clark Five with " Glad All Over", the Hollies with " Stay", the Swinging Blue Jeans with " Hippy Hippy Shake" and the Beatles with " I Want to Hold Your Hand", that week's number one. Throughout its history, the programme proper always (with very few exceptions) finished with the best-selling single of the week, although there often was a separate play-out track over the end credits.

1960s and 1970s

Later in 1964, the broadcast time was moved to one hour later, at 7:35 pm, and the show moved from Wednesdays to what became its regular Thursday slot. Additionally its length was extended by 5minutes to 30 minutes.

For the first three years Alan Freeman, David Jacobs, Pete Murray and Jimmy Savile rotated presenting duties, with the following week's presenter also appearing at the end of each show, although this practice ceased from October 1964 onwards.

The show was taped 52 weeks a year with no breaks. The chart came out on Tuesday mornings and the show aired live on Thursday evenings. This led to a process of difficult weekly planning, rescheduling, booking, and rebooking, as well as pre-recording of acts, particularly of American artists who might be advancing up the chart the following weeks, to ensure that each weeks top 20 would be able to appear on the show. At the BBC in the 1960s and early 1970s, producers and directors did both jobs simultaneously. From 1964 to 1969, Stewart and Dorfman took it in turns to produce and direct, but each spent five days a week getting the show together. At the end of 1969, Stewart left, and was replaced in early 1970 by Melvyn Cornish, Stewart returned as an executive producer in 1971 until 1973. Dorfman directed and produced the series from 1964 until 1971, then continued for five years thereafter as an executive producer.

In the first few editions, Denise Sampey was the "disc girl", who would be seen to put the record on a turntable before the next act played their track. However, a Mancunian model, Samantha Juste, became the regular disc girl after a few episodes, a role she performed until 1967.

Initially acts performing on the show would mime (lip-sync) to the commercially released record, but in 1966 after discussions with the Musicians' Union, miming was banned. After a few weeks during which some bands' attempts to play as well as on their records were somewhat lacking, a compromise was reached whereby a specially recorded backing track was permitted, as long as all the musicians on the track were present in the studio. As a result, Stewart hired Johnny Pearson to conduct an in-studio orchestra to provide musical backing on select performances, beginning with the 4 August 1966 edition. Later, vocal group The Ladybirds began providing vocal backing with the orchestra.

With the birth of BBC Radio 1 in 1967, new Radio1 DJs were added to the roster – Stuart Henry, Emperor Rosko, Simon Dee and Kenny Everett.

Local photographer Harry Goodwin was hired to provide shots of non-appearing artists, and also to provide backdrops for the chart run-down. He continued in the role until 1973.

After two years at the Manchester Dickenson Road Studios, the show moved to London (considered to be better located for bands to appear), initially for six months at BBC TV Centre Studio 2 and then to the larger Studio G at BBC Lime Grove Studios in mid-1966 to provide space for the Top of the Pops Orchestra, which was introduced at this time to provide live instrumentation on some performances (previously, acts had generally mimed to the records). In November 1969, with the introduction of colour, the show moved to BBC TV Centre, where it stayed until 1991, when it moved to Elstree Studios Studio C.

For a while in the early 1970s, non-chart songs were played on a more regular basis, to reflect the perceived growing importance of album sales; there was an album slot featuring three songs from a new LP, as well as a ''New Release'' spot and a feature of a new act, dubbed ''Tip for the Top''. These features were dropped after a while, although the programme continued to feature new releases on a regular basis for the rest of the decade.

During its heyday, it attracted 15 million viewers each week. The peak TV audience of 19 million was recorded in 1979, during the ITV strike, with only BBC1 and BBC2 on air.

''Christmas Top of the Pops''

A year-end Christmas show which used a "The Year in Review" format, was inaugurated on 24 December 1964 and has continued every year since. From 1965 until 2021, the special edition was broadcast on Christmas Day (although not in 1966) and from the same year, a second edition was broadcast in the days after Christmas, varying depending on the schedule, but initially regularly on 26 December. The first was shown on 26 December 1965. In 2022, the Christmas show was moved to BBC Two and broadcast on 24 December, with no usual studio-based live performances included in the broadcast. In 1973, there was just one show, airing on Christmas Day. In place of the traditional second show, Jimmy Savile hosted a look back at the first 10 years of ''TOTP'', broadcast on 27 December. In 1975, the first of the two shows was broadcast prior to Christmas Day, airing on 23 December, followed by the traditional Christmas Day show two days later.

The 1978 Christmas Day show was disrupted due to industrial action at the BBC, requiring a change in format to the broadcast. The first show, due to be screened on 21 December, was not shown at all because BBC1 was off the air. For Christmas Day, Noel Edmonds (presenting his last ever edition of ''TOTP'') hosted the show from the 'TOTP Production Office' with clips taken from various editions of the show broadcast during the year and new studio footage performed without an audience. The format was slightly tweaked for the Christmas Day edition in 1981, with the Radio1 DJs choosing their favourite tracks of the year and the following edition on 31 December featuring the year's number1 hits. The second programme was discontinued after 1984.

1980s

The year 1980 marked major production changes to ''Top of the Pops'' and a hiatus forced by industrial action. Steve Wright made his presenting debut on 7 February 1980. Towards the end of February 1980, facing a £40 million budget deficit, the BBC laid off five orchestras as part of £130 million in cuts. The budget cuts led to a Musicians' Union strike that suspended operations of all 11 BBC orchestras and performances of live music on the BBC; ''Top of the Pops'' went out of production between 29 May and 7 August 1980. During the Musicians' Union strike, BBC1 showed repeats of '' Are You Being Served?'' in the regular ''Top of the Pops'' Thursday night time slot.

Following the strike, Nash was replaced as executive producer by Michael Hurll, who introduced more of a "party" atmosphere to the show, with performances often accompanied by balloons and cheerleaders, and more audible audience noise and cheering. Hurll also laid off the orchestra, as the Musicians' Union was loosening enforcement of the 1966 miming ban.

Guest co-presenters and a music news feature were introduced for a short while, but had ceased by the end of 1980. The chart rundown was split into three sections in the middle of the programme, with the final Top 10 section initially featuring clips of the songs' videos, although this became rarer over the next few years.

An occasional feature showing the American music scene with Jonathan King was introduced in November 1981, and ran every few weeks until February 1985. In January 1985, a ''Breakers'' section, featuring short video clips of new tracks in the lower end of the Top 40, was introduced, and this continued for most weeks until March 1994.

Although the programme had been broadcast live in its early editions, it had been recorded on the day before transmission for many years. However, from May 1981, the show was sometimes broadcast live for a few editions each year, and this practice continued on an occasional basis (often in the week of a bank holiday, when the release of the new chart was delayed, and for some special editions) for the rest of the decade.

The programme moved in September 1985 to a new regular half-hour timeslot of 7 pm on Thursdays, following wider reforms to BBC TV scheduling by then-controller Michael Grade. With the exception of special editions, this saw the end of its longer episodes, which had ranged between 35 and 45 minutes in previous years. Coupled with an emphasis on video clips via features such as the aforementioned ''Breakers'' section, fewer studio acts could appear due to this, leading to renewed general criticism from both viewers and performers, and occasionally putting the show at a slight disadvantage to other music television programmes (alongside later dedicated channels for music videos) such as '' The Tube'' and the revived '' Whistle Test'' (though both would end in 1987).

The end of 1988 was marked by a special 70-minute edition of the show broadcast on 31 December 1988, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first show. The pre-recorded programme featured the return of the original four presenters (Savile, Freeman, Murray and Jacobs) as well as numerous presenters from the show's history, anchored by Paul Gambaccini and Mike Read. Numerous clips from the history of the show were included in between acts performing in the studio, which included Cliff Richard, Engelbert Humperdinck, Lulu, the Four Tops, David Essex, Mud, Status Quo, Shakin' Stevens, the Tremeloes and from the very first edition, the Swinging Blue Jeans. Sandie Shaw, the Pet Shop Boys and Wet Wet Wet were billed in the ''Radio Times'' to appear, but none featured in the show other than Shaw in compilation clips.

Paul Ciani took over as producer in 1988. The following year, in an attempt to fit more songs in the allocated half-hour again, he restricted the duration of studio performances to three minutes, and videos to two minutes, a practice which was largely continued until May 1997. In July 1990, he introduced a rundown of the Top5 albums, which continued on a monthly basis until May 1991. Ciani had to step down due to illness in 1991, when Hurll returned as producer to cover for two months (and again for a brief time as holiday cover in 1992).

1991: 'Year Zero' revamp

From 1967, the show had become closely associated with the BBC radio station Radio 1, usually being presented by DJs from the station, and between 1988 and 1991 the programme was simulcast on the radio station in FM stereo (that is, until BBC's launch of NICAM stereo for TV made such simulcasts redundant). However, during the last few years of the 1980s the association became less close, and was severed completely (although not permanently) in a radical shake-up known as the 'Year Zero' revamp.

Following a fall in viewing figures and a general perception that the show had become 'uncool' (acts like the Clash had refused to appear in the show in previous years), incoming executive producer Stanley Appel (who had worked on the programme since 1966 as cameraman, production assistant, director and stand-in producer) introduced a radical new format on 3 October 1991, in which the Radio1 DJs were replaced by a team of relative unknowns, such as Claudia Simon and Tony Dortie who had previously worked for Children's BBC, 17-year-old local radio DJ Mark Franklin, Steve Anderson, Adrian Rose and Elayne Smith, who was replaced by Femi Oke in 1992. A brand new theme tune ("Now Get Out of That"), title sequence and logo were introduced, and the entire programme moved from BBC Television Centre in London to BBC Elstree Centre in Borehamwood.

The new presenting team would take turns hosting (initially usually in pairs but sometimes solo), and would often introduce acts in an out-of-vision voiceover over the song's instrumental introduction. Short informal interviews were also conducted on stage with the performers, and initially the Top 10 countdown was run without any voiceover. Rules relating to performance were altered, meaning acts had to forcibly sing live as opposed to the backing tracks for instruments and mimed vocals for which the show was known. To incorporate a shift towards USA artists, more use was made of out-of-studio performances, with acts in America able to transmit their song to the ''Top of the Pops'' audience "via satellite". These changes were widely unpopular and much of the presenting team were axed within a year, leaving the show hosted solely by Dortie and Franklin (apart from the Christmas Day editions, when both presenters appeared) from October 1992, on a week-by-week rotation.

1994–1997

By 1994, much of the 'Year Zero' revamp was quickly undone and the arrival of Ric Blaxill as producer in February 1994 signalled a return to presentation from established Radio1 DJs Simon Mayo, Mark Goodier, Nicky Campbell and Bruno Brookes. Blaxill expanded the use of "via satellite" performances, taking the acts out of studios and concert halls and setting them against landmark backdrops. As a consequence, Bon Jovi performed ''Always'' from Niagara Falls and Celine Dion beamed in '' Think Twice'' from Miami Beach.

Blaxill also increasingly experimented with handing presenting duties to celebrities, commonly contemporary comedians and pop stars who were not in the charts at that time. In an attempt to keep the links between acts as fresh as the performances themselves, the so-called "golden mic" was used by, amongst others, Kylie Minogue, Meat Loaf, Chris Eubank, Damon Albarn, Harry Hill, Jack Dee, Lulu, Björk, Jarvis Cocker, Stewart Lee and Richard Herring. Radio1 DJs still presented occasionally, including Lisa I'Anson, Steve Lamacq, Jo Whiley and on one show only Chris Evans. The last remnants of the Year Zero revamp were replaced on 2 February 1995, when a new set, title sequence, logo and theme tune were introduced (the logo having first appeared on the new programme '' Top of the Pops 2'', which had debuted five months previously in mid-September 1994).

''TOTP'' was traditionally shown on a Thursday night, but was moved to a Friday starting on 14 June 1996, originally at 7 pm, but then shifted to 7.30 pm, a change which placed the programme up against the soap opera ''Coronation Street'' on ITV. This began a major decline in audience figures as fans were forced to choose between ''Top of the Pops'' and an episode of the soap.

1997–2003

In 1997, incoming producer Chris Cowey phased out the use of celebrities and established a rotating team of former presenters from youth music magazine '' The O-Zone'' including Jayne Middlemiss and Jamie Theakston, as well as existing Radio1 DJs Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball. The team was later augmented by Kate Thornton and Gail Porter.

Cowey additionally instigated a wider set of 'back to basics' changes when he took over the show. On 1 May 1998, a remixed version of the classic "Whole Lotta Love" theme tune previously used in the 1970s was introduced, accompanied by a new 1960s-inspired logo and title sequence. Cowey also began to export the brand overseas with localised versions of the show on air in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy by 2003. Finally, the programme returned to its previous home of BBC Television Centre in 2001, where it remained until its cancellation in 2006.

2003: ''All New Top of the Pops''

On 28 November 2003 (three months after the appointment of Andi Peters as executive producer), the show saw one of its most radical overhauls since the ill-fated 1991 'Year Zero' revamp in what was widely reported as a make-or-break attempt to revitalise the long-running series. In a break with the previous format, the show played more up-and-coming tracks ahead of any chart success, and also featured interviews with artists and a music news feature called "24/7". Most editions of the show were now broadcast live, for the first time since 1991 (apart from a couple of editions in 1994).

Although the first edition premièred to improved ratings, the ''All New'' format, hosted by MTV presenter Tim Kash, quickly returned to low ratings and brought about scathing reviews. Kash continued to host the show, but Radio1 DJs Reggie Yates and Fearne Cotton (who had each presented a few shows in 2003, before the revamp) were brought back to co-host alongside him, before Kash was completely dropped by the BBC, later taking up a new contract at MTV. The show continued to be hosted by Reggie Yates and Fearne Cotton (usually together, but occasionally solo) on Friday evenings until 8July 2005.

On 30 July 2004, the show took place outside a studio environment for the first time by broadcasting outside in Gateshead. Girls Aloud, Busted, Will Young and Jamelia were among the performers that night.

2005

Figures had plummeted to below three million, prompting an announcement by the BBC that the show was going to move, again, to Sunday evenings on BBC Two, thus losing the prime-time slot on BBC One that it had maintained for more than forty years.

This move was widely reported as a final "sidelining" of the show, and perhaps signalled its likely cancellation. At the time, it was insisted that this was so the show would air immediately after the official announcement of the new top 40 chart on Radio 1, as it was thought that by the following Friday, the chart seemed out of date. The final ''Top of the Pops'' to be shown on BBC One (barring Christmas and New Year specials) was broadcast on Monday 11 July 2005, which was edition number 2,166.

The first edition on BBC Two was broadcast on 17 July 2005 at 7.00 pm with presenter Fearne Cotton. Following the move to Sundays, Cotton continued to host with a different guest presenter each week, such as Rufus Hound or Richard Bacon. On a number of occasions, however, Reggie Yates would step in, joined by female guest presenters such as Lulu, Cyndi Lauper and Anastacia. Viewing figures during this period averaged around 1 million. Shortly after the move to BBC Two, Peters resigned as executive producer. He was replaced by the BBC's Creative Head of Music Entertainment Mark Cooper, while producer Sally Wood remained to oversee the show on a weekly basis.

2006

On 20 June 2006, the show was formally cancelled and it was announced that the last edition would be broadcast on 30 July 2006. Edith Bowman co-presented its hour-long swansong, along with Jimmy Savile (who was the main presenter on the first show), Reggie Yates, Mike Read, Pat Sharp, Sarah Cawood, Dave Lee Travis, Rufus Hound, Tony Blackburn and Janice Long.

The final day of recording was 26 July 2006 and featured archive footage and tributes, including the Rolling Stones – the very first band to appear on ''Top of the Pops'' – opening with "The Last Time", the Spice Girls, David Bowie, Wham!, Madonna, Beyoncé, Gnarls Barkley, the Jackson 5, Sonny & Cher and Robbie Williams. The show closed with a final countdown, topped by Shakira, as her track " Hips Don't Lie" (featuring Wyclef Jean) had climbed back up to number one on the UK Singles Chart earlier in the day. The show ended with Savile ultimately turning the lights off in the empty studio.

Fearne Cotton, who was the current presenter, was unavailable to co-host for the final edition due to her filming of ITV's '' Love Island'' in Fiji but opened the show with a quick introduction recorded on location, saying "It's still number one, it's ''Top of the Pops''". BARB reported the final show's viewing figures as 3.98 million.

As the last episode featured no live acts in the studio, the last act to actually play live on a weekly episode of ''TOTP'' was Snow Patrol, who performed " Chasing Cars" in the penultimate edition; the last act ever featured visually on a weekly ''Top of the Pops'' was Girls Aloud, as part of the closing sequence of bands performing on the show throughout the years. They were shown performing " Love Machine".

2006–2023

The magazine and '' TOTP2'' both survived despite the show's axing, and the Christmas editions continue as of 2024. However, the ''TOTP'' website is now no longer updated.

Proposed return

In October 2008, British Culture Secretary Andy Burnham and Manchester indie band the Ting Tings called for the show to return.

On 29 October 2008, Simon Cowell stated in an interview that he would be willing to buy the rights to ''Top of the Pops'' from the BBC. The corporation responded that they had not been formally approached by Cowell, and that in any case the format was "not up for sale". In November 2008, it was reported by ''The Times'' and other newspapers that the weekly programme was to be revived in 2009, but the BBC said there were no such plans.

In July 2009, Pet Shop Boys singer Neil Tennant criticised the BBC for ending the programme, stating that new acts were missing out on "that great moment of being crowned that week's Kings of Pop".

In early 2015 there was increased speculation of a return of the show including rumours that Dermot O'Leary might present alongside Fearne Cotton. According to a report in the ''Daily Mirror'', a BBC insider stated that "some at the highest level are massive supporters of the plan f a returnand have given the go-ahead." The move of the UK charts to a Friday due to take place in summer 2015 was also said to favour the possibility of a return, making it "the perfect tie-in" and a "perfect start to the weekend", but no weekly return has occurred.

BBC Four reruns

In April 2011, the BBC began to reshow ''Top of the Pops'' on Thursday nights on BBC Four beginning with the equivalent show from 35 years earlier in a 7:30 pm–8:00 pm slot approximating to the time the programme was traditionally shown. The first programme shown, 1April 1976, was chosen because it was from approximately this episode onwards that most editions remain in the BBC archive. The repeat programmes come in two versions; the first is edited down to fit in the 30-minute 7:30 slot, the second is shown normally twice overnight in the following weekend, and is usually complete. However both the short and longer editions can be edited for a number of reasons.

Potentially offensive content to modern audiences is cut (for example The Barron Knights' in-studio performance of "Food For Thought" on the edition of 13 December 1979 including a segment parodying Chinese takeaways using mannerisms that may now be viewed as offensive), and cinematic film footage can be truncated, replaced or removed entirely due to the costs to the BBC of reshowing such footage. The BBC also makes the repeats available on BBC iPlayer. The repeats are continuing as of 2025 with episodes from 1998, and from 28 October 2022, older episodes from 1976 to 1992 are broadcast at 8pm.

However since October 2012, episodes featuring Jimmy Savile have ceased to be broadcast due to the sexual abuse scandal and subsequent Operation Yewtree police investigation. Following the arrest of Dave Lee Travis by Operation Yewtree officers, and his subsequent conviction for indecent assault, episodes featuring Travis were also omitted. Following Gary Glitter's conviction for sexual assault, episodes featuring him are also not included in the run, or otherwise have Glitter's performances edited out. Episodes featuring R. Kelly are also skipped, or have his performances edited out, following his convictions for sexual abuse. John Alford's appearance on the show, originally broadcast on 23 May 1996, has not been repeated since he was charged with sexual offences.
Episodes featuring Diddy (then known as Puff Daddy) are also skipped from the run, or have his performances edited out, following allegations of his sexual misconduct.

Mike Smith decided not to sign the licence extension that would allow the BBC to repeat the ''Top of the Pops'' episodes that he presented, with the BBC continuing to respect his wishes following his death. Adrian Rose also chose not to allow his episodes to be repeated. As a result, episodes featuring Smith and Rose are also omitted.

"Story of" Specials

Prior to the 1976 BBC reruns shown in 2011, the BBC produced a special programme, "The Story of 1976". This comprised excerpts from the 1976 programmes, interspersed with new interviews with people discussing the time period.

They produced similar programmes for subsequent calendar years, each airing before or during the run of repeats from the particular year. These specials went on hiatus following "The Story of 1990" in October 2020, but returned in early 2022 as a weekly series, scheduled up from "The Story of 1991" to "The Story of 1999" in May 2022.

"Big Hits" compilation

A series of "Big Hits" compilations have been broadcast with on-screen captions about artists.In December 2016, a festive special using the format of the "Big Hits" programmes, ''Top of the Pops: Christmas Hits'' was broadcast on BBC Four, featuring a mix of Christmas music and non-festive songs which had been hits at Christmas time. This effectively replaced the annual Christmas edition of '' Top of the Pops 2'', which did not run that year.

Christmas and New Year specials

Although the weekly ''Top of the Pops'' has been cancelled, the Christmas Specials have continued, initially hosted by Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates. The Christmas specials were broadcast on Christmas Day afternoon on BBC One. From 2008 to 2021 (apart from 2010 and 2011), a New Year special has also been broadcast. A new logo and title sequence were introduced on the 2019 Christmas special. The BBC's Head of Music Television, Mark Cooper, continued to oversee the programme as executive producer until 2019 when he was replaced by Alison Howe. Meanwhile, Stephanie McWhinnie, who had replaced Wood as producer with effect from Christmas 2011, was replaced by Caroline Cullen (who had previously worked as assistant producer on the show) from Christmas 2020, when both festive shows were recorded with new studio performances but no live audience physically in attendance. On 4December 2017, Yates stepped down from hosting ''Top of the Pops'' due to comments he made regarding Jewish people and rappers. The BBC later announced Clara Amfo as Yates' replacement, she continues to hold the role. Amfo was joined by Jordan North for the 2021 specials, with him replacing Cotton.

Following a change in format for 2022, the usual studio-based festive editions with new live performances did not return and was replaced by an end-of-year programme, ''Top of the Pops Review of the Year 2022'', was aired on Christmas Eve on BBC Two with Amfo returning as host alongside fellow Radio 1 DJ Jack Saunders. This format returned in 2023 and 2024, with Amfo hosting the reviews of the respective year.

Comic Relief specials

The show was given a one-off revival (of sorts) for Comic Relief 2007 in the form of '' Top Gear of the Pops'', presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. It was filmed at the '' Top Gear'' aerodrome studio in Surrey on Sunday, 11 March 2007, although it bore little resemblance to the usual ''Top of the Pops'' format.

On 13 March 2009, ''Top of The Pops'' was once again revived, this time in its usual format, for a special live Comic Relief edition, airing on BBC Two while the main telethon took a break for the '' BBC News at Ten'' on BBC One. As with the Christmas specials the show was presented by Radio 1 duo Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates with special guest presenter Noel Fielding and appearances from Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Claudia Winkleman, Jonathan Ross, Davina McCall (dancing in the audience and later as a Flo Rida dancer with Claudia Winkleman and French and Saunders) and David Tennant.

Live performances – interspersed with Comic Relief appeal films – included acts such as Franz Ferdinand, Oasis