MATTHEW LINDSAY
Top Of The Pops
ran from 1964 to 2006, enjoying its heyday in the 80s and having its lifespan extended by a ‘Year Zero’ revamp in 1991
© Alamy
At the dawn of the 1980s, Top Of The Pops was faced with a dilemma. “It was a mechanical operation, very well run, but there was that BBC cleanliness to it that wasn’t quite right,” remembers Judd Lander, a plugger who worked with ABBA and The Jacksons on the show. “If you got a young band like Bay City Rollers on with a young audience, then it worked, but it was full of these weird moments where the audience wasn’t responding to what was happening onstage.”