Top of the Pops (TOTP) is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1 January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its history, it was broadcast on Thursday evenings on BBC One. Each show consisted of performances of some of the week's best-selling popular music records, usually excluding any tracks moving down the chart, including a rundown of that week's singles chart. This was originally the Top 20, though this varied throughout the show's history. The Top 30 was used from 1969, and the Top 40 from 1984.
Logo used 1973–1986 and 2019–2021
An audience watching a performance at a recording of Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops was first broadcast from Dickenson Road Studios in Manchester
BBC Television Centre in London, home of Top of the Pops 1969–1991 and 2001–2006
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, primetime drama and entertainment, and live BBC Sport events.
An image of 'Digit Al' sitting on the last BBC1 mechanical ident, taken from the last analogue BBC One Northern Ireland transmission on 23 October 2012 at 23:31 GMT
The circle idents were introduced on 7 October 2006 and were used until 31 December 2016. The Hippos ident is shown above.
