mumu03

Top of the Pops

I would think Ciani had other work commitments in the Autumn, much like Michael Hurll did with the Late Late Breakfast Show in the 80s - IIRC Brian Whitehouse produced some or most of the Autumn 1981, 82, and 83 shows, and also did a few in 84 alongside Appel. By the end of 85 they were likely producing more shows than Hurll was, although he would still receive an Executive Producer credit most of the time.

Top of the Pops

I think it genuinely is just his fanbase, plus one or two people on Facebook who've seen a post campaigning for it or something. You get these types with any moderately big social media influencer or YouTube channel now, and the fact that a few thousand of them can send their beloved content creator to number one is a bit of a sad indictment of where the singles charts are at now, I think.

They have, of course, been reformatted to near oblivion with the advent of streaming - some of the rules are for good, as we won't ever have another week where almost the entire Top 20 is taken up by Ed Sheeran, but then some of them easily allow someone like LadBaby to have a Christmas number one for at least three consecutive years. One digital download by some middle-aged mum who hasn't set up a Spotify is always going to be worth more than a few streams of a new Jess Glynne song, or something.