chamblog

Well, the inevitable finally happened – "Top of the Pops" has finally been axed after 42 years. I can't say I'm surprised. I probably stopped watching about 5 years ago and even then it wasn't very often. I found that the quality had dissapeared, along with the consistency that we'd come to expect from TOTP. BBC, in their wisdom, kept playing with schedules, presenters and formats to the point where it was no longer recognisable. I'm not saying they should have kept it as it was – indeed with MTV and the like it did seem rather outdated, but they couldn't find the right way to show new music on primetime telly, and other programmes like dramas and comedy had more prevalence on the two BBC channels.

Maybe the BBC should look at their own music channel – I used to rather like the now long-gone music and comedy channel, UK Play (from the UKTV family which became UKG2 when they dropped the music). The BBC usually does things so well, and their archive of music clips must be fantastic, so they should be able to find some way of putting it all together to make an up-to-date music package, whether its a single programme or a seperate channel. Live performances always go down well – maybe they could record Radio 1's Live Lounge sessions to be broadcast on TV (there have been some amazing cover versions to come out of them). Apart from Later with Jools Holland I cant think of any other BBC music programme so come on BBC, lets have some more.