If you enjoyed the 1991 #totp tonight, last week's Pick of the Pops is a cracker as well. Sadly Goodiebags skips Deep Deep Trouble ("now you can't go/to the boat show!") www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

That Lou Bega performance the most badly directed performance from the German version yet, all the cuts miles off the beat and weird pans to nothing in particular #totp

Wonder if in between all the anecdotes about hanging out with Elvis in Vegas, Tom Bloody Jones ever reminisces about performing in a nightclub in Nottingham #totp

Happy memories of that time in 1987 Bowie did a performance for #totp and they didn't bother showing it

I love that Nicky has to explain who they are for people who don't live in London but can't mention Capital, so calls them "a London group" like they're part of some kind of scene

I got that for my tenth birthday and got a bit embarrassed one of the tracks was called Pimps, Pushers and Prostitutes

Number One magazine absolutely bet the farm on Ches, he was on the cover literally every other week

There is an very prolific poster on here I don't follow, but dozens of people I follow do, and pretty much every single one of their posts is retweeted several times, so I probably see them more than anyone I actually follow and am more or less following them via osmosis

Got a new mattress, can't use it though

I remember William Phillips in Broadcast reviewing the first year of Channel 5 and saying "we have yet to shudder at Channel 5's first sitcom"

Another classic prop newspaper, this time from Red Eye

Not mentioned in this brilliant article in the 1975 referendum which, at the height of the Beeb's financial difficulties, has the most aesthetically displeasing and primitive set of them all, including the fifties programmes

It's a seven-decade saga that charts the changing fortunes of the very long desk, co-starring ashtrays, telephones, banquettes, pulpits, piano lids and an over-enthusiastic electric fan. My history of BBC election studio furniture: nearertotheend.co.uk/2026/04/25/b...

The greatest comic ever made, and everything I have written since has been, cough, "inspired" by it

Which London Underground journey is faster? Test your tube knowledge! I scored 15 on Play Your Tubes Right. edjefferson.com/playyourtube...

Hugely unpleasant mix of Welsh and Scouse, with none of the attractive elements of either

I remember they showed a clip of this on the last episode in 1996, which was quite interesting in itself as not many kids shows get to acknowledge on air it is the last episode

Football Focus theme tune graveyard #2 (less obsessed but still a great tune) youtu.be/1nj8GpzeRbs?...

Football Focus theme tune graveyard #1 (was properly obsessed with this at the time) youtu.be/w6I7YY2Gw80?...

If we're including radio, it's Grace Jones on R1 Roundtable in 1982, almost rendered speechless by Captain Sensible's 'Croydon'. "I don't get it...I don't get it...is it a love song?" (Yes, yes it is)

2 Things: 1) A Trail promoting the Mastermind Grand Final of 1994 with a giant Egg in the chair which for some reason gave me nightmares and 2) A Man in a Deep sea divers outfit doing the Riverdance on Ireland's The Late Late Show.

I suppose it's my letter getting read out in the broom cupboard, leading Pip Schofield to sing the theme from Ulysses for the first time. But umm... I think I'm fine with never getting to hear that again.

What are your holy grails that you have vivid memories of that you are unlikely ever to see again, either as they're long wiped or it's so obscure you'd never be able to find it?

This is another holy grail ticked off, and if someone ever finds the day in May 1988 when CBBC moved Broom Cupboards and all the links were done from a different part of TV Centre, I will have completed the internet

OH WOW IT'S THE REVIEW OF CVG I READ ABOUT A HUNDRED TIMES THAT WEEKEND

Absolutely delighted to see this repeated on 8th May, one of the most spectacular episodes of #totp ever made www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

Absolutely delighted to see this repeated on 8th May, one of the most spectacular episodes of #totp ever made www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

Just watched last week's Saturday Night Live and "a Southampton ferry service has gone into liquidation... well, obviously, that's how ferries work" is my favourite joke of the entire series

A year ago today I was the luckiest boy in the world

This #totp 1999 tour is a fascinating dive into turn of the century nightclubs that mostly don’t exist anymore. Post Hitman and Her shirt-and-tie era but pre the sector going virtually bust unless you’re called Popworld. This is what ISIS Nottingham ended up like

The best bits of these #totp 'On Tour' episodes are the shots of late-90s regional nightclub decor. Fingers crossed Gail will do one of her links from the little window into the 'kitchen' where they technically sell hot food as part of their late-licence agreement

I relate hard to the woman standing to the left of Gail there, trying to look like she was having a good time while simultaneously fighting back tears and/or vomit #totp

The best and most famous member of Thunderbugs is of course the glasses, who later formed a supergroup with the hat from New Radicals and the rucksack from 3T

The twist is that it turns into a 15-minute death-metal rock opera *puts hand to ear* I'm sorry, I'm being told the twist is that it's exactly the same as the original, but not as good #totp

YIKES

I've also just found out that the Thunderbugs album came out in the UK on Minidisc only. What kind of contractual term resulted in that weird outcome? #totp

The unfortunately named Isis in Nottingham had the most distinctive decor of all the venues so far, making it very obvious three of the performances on the following show were pre-records #totp

The 1983 #totp tonight is an absolute cracker, even with the multi-talented FR David

I see this bollocks is a thing again

39/41 here, embarrassingly forgetting a side currently in the top half of the Premier League www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

Oh, and HAPPY EMMA LEDDEN DAY #totp

39/41 here, embarrassingly forgetting a side currently in the top half of the Premier League www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

I know it's an international brand, but isn't it a bit weird how The Guardian have a regular review of the US Saturday Night Live but not the UK one www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Some great replies to this

If you were in the cast of Saturday Night Live UK, what "London" thing would you be doing in your bit in the opening titles? I feel looking at TV Times back issues in Westminster Central Reference Library would be insufficiently vibrant

Having umpteen episodes of Pops waiting when I got home as exciting as having two weeks' worth of comics from the newsagents

Catching up on all the #totp I missed during my holiday, and as ever thoroughly enjoyed Gary Clail's weird emphasis on "watching THOSE young children sleeping rough on the streets!"

The other thing is that this would have been their last ever sketch for Going Live had they not returned a year later, what a way to go out

Happy 35th anniversary to this masterpiece youtu.be/NN5i2p3HBxQ?...

I found The Slum Sport by @chrislepkowski.bsky.social to be perfect poolside reading and my favourite story that illustrates what a different world 80s football was is that Reading tried to sign Terry Bullivant but it fell through as it was too far from London and he was doing The Knowledge