Top of the Pops

TOTP Database | TOTP History | TOTP Artists

Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, was a weekly pop chart show originally broadcast on the BBC from 1st January 1964 until 30th July 2006. Although the weekly show has been cancelled, special Christmas and New Year editions have continued, in addition to repeats of archive episodes on BBC4.

Unfortunately, most early episodes of the show were not recorded or were wiped shortly after broadcast. Archiving of TOTP did not begin until 1976, by which time only three complete episodes from the sixties existed at the BBC as telerecordings of the original transmission (one from 1967, 1968 and 1969). The early seventies are also mostly absent with only Christmas specials and a few random episodes existing as originally broadcast.

Some performances from TOTP were sold abroad and exist as inserts in other shows. The BBC also retained some inserts that had been used in earlier shows for re-use in later episodes. The earliest surviving insert is from Episode 8. The last episode containing missing performances is Episode 702 from 8th September 1977. (N.B. This is listed in our database as #709 as the production numbers used on the board alongside the countdown clock at the start of the show didn't always match the number of transmitted episodes.)

In 2003 the BBC added a searchable TOTP database to their website, listing all available information on every episode ever broadcast, with the promise that it would never be more than a week or two out of date. This disappeared shortly after the show was cancelled and, apart from the listings that had been copied from it and re-posted on other websites, has been unavailable ever since... until now!

TVRDb has created it's own unique TOTP database based on the original listings, brought up-to-date with all the specials broadcast since the show was cancelled. Some shows listed in the original database have been deliberately omitted as we do not consider them "proper" TOTP episodes:

Pop Go The 60s! (31st December 1969) Introduced by Jimmy Savile and Elfie von Kalckreuth. A joint production by BBCtv and ZDF (West Germany).
Into 71 (31st December 1970) A compilation of music clips (some taken from episodes of TOTP that had been broadcast earlier in the year).
Smashie and Nicey's Top of the Pops Party (4th January 1994) A parody of TOTP marking the 30th anniversary, featuring archive clips but no new performances.
Top of the Pops: The Exclusive Mix (June 1994) An untransmitted stand-by show, compiled and edited but never broadcast.
Top of the Pops Song for Europe Special (24th March 1995) A preview of the eight finalists vying to be the UK entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1995.
The Great British Song Contest Semi Final (1st March 1996) A Top of the Pops special similar to the previous years show but spread over two weeks.
The Great British Song Contest Final (9th March 1996) The second part of this Top of the Pops special selecting an entry for Eurovision 1996.
Top of the Pops Weekend (22nd September 1996) Celebrations marking the tenth anniversary of Childline. Introduced by Peter Andre and Gina G.
Spice Girls on Top of the Pops (24th December 1997) An insight into the chartbusting girl group, with interviews, previous performances, and their latest single.
Top of the Pops Reunion 1981 (27th May 2001) A live celebration of the pop hits of 1981 with contemporary artists alongside original eighties acts.
Top Gear of the Pops (16th March 2007) Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May hosted their own version of the chart show as part of Red Nose Day 2007.
Comic Relief Does Top of the Pops (13th March 2009) A special selection of the latest releases presented by Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates, with Noel Fielding, French & Saunders, Davina McCall, Jonathan Ross, David Tennant and Claudia Winkleman.

Our TOTP Database contains all 2200 episodes of TOTP as originally broadcast on BBC1 or BBC2, plus the Xmas and New Year specials that have continued since the cancellation. The official count is often quoted as 2204, 2205 or 2206, a figure that you can reach by adding some of the above omissions. However, as they do not meet TVRDb criteria (i.e. a standalone show featuring performances based on the charts or featuring No.1 hits from the previous year) they are not part of this database and will not appear in search results.

Apart from the 100th edition, the milestone editions don't actually match the number of episodes broadcast, as originally the extra Christmas shows were excluded. The 500th edition from 1973 is therefore #508 in our database!

The strikes during 1973, 1974, 1978 and 1980 also messed up the numbering as scheduled editions were cancelled and/or never made. The 1000th edition in 1983 is our #996. The 2000th edition in 2002 is our #2001 so the counting caught up at some point along the way.

In addition to the artist, title, chart position and peak position, we have also attempted to list the current archive status for each song. Some performances that were missing have been rediscovered over the years and are now being kept in other archives or in personal collections. The abbreviations we have used are as follows:

Master - exists in original broadcast quality, looking and sounding the same as first broadcast.
Film - exists on film stock (usually 16mm, although some clips exist on 8mm and 35mm) either as a copy of a video recording or as the original promo insert used in the show.
Video - exists on a low-band domestic video format. Episodes of missing TOTP have been recovered from CV-2000, N-1500, U-matic, Betamax and VHS tapes.
Audio - an audio recording of the soundtrack to the show exists, recorded on reel-to-reel or cassette tape. Some recordings only exist in private collections and have not yet been made available to the public.
Extract - a clip exists, on either film or video, sometimes because it was used in another programme, sometimes because the recording was started or stopped midway through.
Missing - no known copy exists, on either audio or video. If you have information on any missing TOTP please let us know!

N.B. This database is still a work in progress. If you have any corrections or comments please do not hesitate to contact us.