The BBC will drop almost a third of episodes when it broadcasts a repeat series of Top Of The Pops next year.
Seventeen episodes of the hit music show will be pulled from the 1981 series re-run, out of a total of fifty-four. The remaining shows will be broadcast on graveyard channel, BBC Four, where very few people are likely to notice them anyway.
Those episodes facing the axe were fronted by sexual predators Jimmy Savile and Dave Lee Travis, who both had wandering hands.
Savile fronted eight episodes of 1981 series, with Travis featuring in most of the others. The 1981 Christmas special was co-presented by both Savile and Travis. Gary Glitter, a convicted child sex offender, performed in another of the 1981 shows, which is also expected to be omitted from the schedule.
In related news, it is reported that the BBC is planning a new Top Of The Pops replacement show. BBC bosses Ben Cooper and Bob Shennan are said to be in talks with industry experts about the development of a new chart music show aimed at the over-25s.
Cooper, the Controller of BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra, told the Independent: "I am working hard with Bob Shennan, asking, 'What are the ingredients that would work for today?'
"When people ask about whether Top Of The Pops is coming back, what they are really saying is, 'When can we get a once-a-week primetime BBC One music slot?'
"I have had this conversation with agents, independent production companies, and with Simon Cowell a few weeks back."
It is understood that, for obvious reasons, the new show will not be called Top Of The Pops.
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3 comments:
Perhaps they'll call it "Top Of The Paedos".
Big fan of and a supporter of this blog but I have to say this is a very old story indeed. They dropped any Jimmy related episodes within days of the media beginning to take the accusations against him seriously. The DLT episodes were dropped as soon as he was charged, if not earlier.
"When people ask about whether Top Of The Pops is coming back, what they are really saying is, 'When can we get a once-a-week primetime BBC One music slot?'"
No, the clue is in the question Mr.Cooper, they're asking you when is Top of the Pops coming back. Pompous cretin.
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