I actually got around to watching the festive episodes of Top of the Pops this year! Since 2006, when the weekly show got cancelled after more than four decades, they only show new episodes at Christmas time – all other showings of TOTP are classic ’80s episodes on BBC4 (which, frankly, is better, but it’d still be nice to have a modern weekly show). However, presenters Fearne Cotton and Clara Amfo do a very good job of imitating the classic style of TOTP presenting, and thus make it come across like TOTP is something that happens all the time! If only it were true.
The Christmas episode had a good selection of artists performing various hits, although there were one or two artists doubling up, which breaks the DJing rule! The New Year episode (which was shown on the 29th of December for some reason), meanwhile, was more focused on new music for 2019 that’s not been in the charts yet. Most of it was a bit dull, but there were a few gems in there that I’ve added to my Spotify playlist – Girlfriend by Christine & The Queens was a particular favourite.
It’s a shame it’s only on at Christmas these days, but the BBC4 ’80s episodes will keep me nicely occupied until next December!