Top of the Pops

One thing that's noticable with the cypher graphics (especially as they get more elaborate) is how smooth the animation is keeps changing, sometimes several times in one graphic. Especially noticable when you're seeing 50i footage, it's very common for the animations to keep dropping to 25Hz, or sometimes even lower, then back up again. I presume that's the equipment struggling with real time animation of some of the more complicated graphics.

Not something we've really seen on the BBC4 episodes yet, as it's the first few weeks of them and the animations are still comparatively simple, but it happens all the time once we get to 1991.

Another thing I've noticed is in these 1990 episodes the end credits have a credit for "cypher graphics", but once they return in 1991 it says "video caption artist" instead, I wonder if that was something to do with the union issues which caused the cypher graphics to vanish for 8 months and not wanting the cypher itself named in the credits?

Either way, the 1991 graphics were not a patch on the 1990 efforts (once they start getting creative).

Someone's just sent me a copy of the BBC Archive PasB of the 23/6/88 edition (with presenter links and captions), which confirms it does exist, exists in full and doesn't seem to have any sorts of technical issues.

This must confirm the rumour that someone at BBC4 came across the mute link/caption free version, assumed it was the only copy the BBC had without looking further and that's why it wasn't broadcast. Even more strange seeing as the PasB version was clearly used when compiling Big Hits 1988 a few months earlier.

I know what you mean, but I think this is a pretty simplistic view. I happen to know that a few years ago there was one episode we didn't get for certain reasons that was very close to being transmitted, as they tried exceptionally hard to edit around the problems and got as far as creating a new version of it, but in the end it was decided it didn't work editorially and wasn't broadcast.

It may be the case that the episode was misfiled in the archives and a more complete copy exists, but I would be very wary of suggesting that it was because someone at BBC4 didn't look hard enough. And just because it looks suitable on a computer screen doesn't mean it's in a format suitable for broadcast.

I'm presuming that's the June 84 one that opened with a Gary Glitter performance, then immediately followed by an OMD video that had a technical problem? Either that or the December 84 one where Glitter appeared smack in between two chart countdowns where it would also have been hard to edit him out. I can't think of any other non-Smith/DLT/Savile edition that BBC4 have skipped over, apart from those two said 1988 editions.

Edit: Oh, I've also remembered the 1981 Peter Powell edition that the BBC only have as mute links, but the off-air copy that was given to the BBC to try and patch it up was also incomplete.

I've uploaded both versions of the episode here anyway:

https://we.tl/t-XuvIgvqCSH

Compressed and shrunk a lot from the original file I was sent, which was over 1GB in size. I notice the mute links version has a modern VT clock grafted on to the start, but the PasB still has the original one.

It may well be the case that the correct version was misfiled, and the fact the incorrect one has a modern VT clock but the correct one doesn't would suggest there was some issue along the way and it got missed out. But it's like TVS, it may exist but if the paperwork is wrong or missing it can't be shown.

This is no slight on you, but these Pops rumours do boggle the mind. Half the time it's suggested BBC4 has schedules planned for months in advance, the other half it's suggested they're reliant on one person having a cursory glance at the archive and if it's not immediately there they just stop looking. It can't be both.

I know people like writing tweets with "CONFIRMED" on them and appearing in the know, but it's like the theories the 1990 doc was delayed "as it couldn't be signed off" or "the staff were furloughed". That doesn't explain why hundreds of other shows were able to be broadcast during lockdown. There are umpteen boring reasons why shows can and can't be broadcast.

You're on TV Forum where these sorts of assumptions are made for all sorts of shows and other decisions, not just TOTP It's what internet nerds with too much time on their hands do. Especially when there's no answer coming from the people responsible, ones get made up.

As I've pointed out before though, even the mute link copy is a bit of a mess, beginning with the regular audio, then the sound cutting out for two minutes, presumably while they re-routed to the correct audio feed. Could have caused issues if they ever had to repeat the Pasadenas performance.

Of course there's also the March 85 show which appears to not exist at the BBC in any capacity, besides the off-air footage they used in the Story Of for the Billy Bragg and Loose Ends performances at least. The picture quality didn't actually look too awful, so perhaps they tried to make some improvements but just didn't want to bother putting it on in the end?

Some have raised questions over the lighting effects used in the opening Nik Kershaw performance of that episode, but after watching an off-air recording of it I don't think there's anything that the usual PSE fixes wouldn't solve. Exactly how and why the master copy disappeared is something I'd still like to know though - again, there were rumours it went missing en route to getting digitised, but I wouldn't really expect anyone to have any real knowledge of it by this point.

I heard that one too, though again it's also possible one of the numerous "TOTP rumours" that people come up with that Steve mentioned.

The other 1988 mute link edition likely doesn't exist as broadcast, seeing as the clip of Transvision Vamp used from it in the Story of 1988 was sans the original captions, or at least if it does, the producers of the Story of 1988 didn't have it.

In theory at least, those 1984 episodes with Gary Glitter performances should've been easy to correct - there'd been similar situations beforehand with the October 1981 episode that he opened, as well as the February 1984 one which had a Juan Martin performance with film footage from The Thorn Birds between two chart rundowns. Both were edited accordingly and the shows went out on BBC4 in the end, but especially considering the June 84 edition contained tape glitches, I would imagine the other two were just too awkward to work around.

Editing Glitter out of the December 84 edition was really tricky though, some people tried and nobody was really able to get anything satisfactory. The way the voiceover ran over the start of the performance made it pretty much impossible to edit reasonably.