To be surprised that we lost Top of the Pops, Smash Hits and Grange Hill around the same time?

[MillOnTheSaw]

These 3 things mentioned in my title were favourites of people of a certain age. I challenge you to guess my age!! The thing that surprises me was that all 3 of these finished for ever at around the same time - mid to late 2000s. I’ll never forget the last ever episode of Top Of The Pops which aired on Sunday 30th July 2006 when Fearne Cotton and Jimmy Savile finally switched off the lights in the TOTP studio.

AIBU to surprised that these 3 beloved media phenomena of my demographic all packed in at the same time?

I MISS THEM 😢

Reckon you are 58. 1967 like me!

I think it’s really sad there’s no equivalent of TOTP, the old episodes are such amazing snapshots of a moment in time 😭

Neil Tennant was the editor wasn’t he? I remember when he left Smash Hits to be a pop star. I learned the lyrics to so many songs in the 80’s - what a decade to grow up in (born 1970)

well that's peak to me I loved all those bands, well maybe not Prmal Scream but holy shit!!!

300,000 copies a fortnight is unbelievable never mind 800,000..talk about different times, I wonder how many the like of NME or even Loaded were shifting?

No 52 - end of 1972!

1969 here. I absolutely loved Grange Hill, Tucker was definitely a favourite and the only reason to watch EE was that he was in it! The Zammo storyline in GH broke my heart - it was really well done & everyone was talking about it at our school, as well as Michelle’s teenage pregnancy. Then of course Neighbours joined in when I was doing A levels - we had a tv in the 6th form common room so I remember it being on at lunchtime.

Weirdly I could take or leave TOTP but never missed the Sunday chart shows.

Fame was also a huuuge hit - but did you fancy Danny or Bruno??

Don’t forget Friday night TV - usually something American - I loved Cagney & Lacey, Dynasty and Dallas - who shot JR!

I did love Smash Hits, I found a picture 7” record in a box recently that I’d got with the magazine - god knows how it’s survived!

I also loved Jackie in the late 1970s, and Just 17. I remember getting Cosmopolitan in my late teens and feeling very grown up.

Very different times!

Love all these references and can relate to all of them

Me too!

I preferred byker grove

Yay! ❤️

@MedievalNun my sister used to get Just 17 & maybe Jackie? I also used to read my sisters ones with the photo stories 😃 When I was "of age" my friends & I used to swear by "More" & there was another one but it escapes me right now..

Blimey, that takes me back. Jackie and Girl were the two mags I used to get. Every Christmas, you'd get the book albums!

Oh maybe it was Bliss or something like that.. before I graduated to the very grown up More Magazine

Oh the annuals!!! Our nana used to get us them, obviously very different ones, a big age gap, I used to get Wendy & Twinkle maybe? & she'd get the cool ones 😂

That's it, annuals not albums!

Anyone remember the disaster on TOTP when All About Eve were performing Martha's Harbour 'live'? The track started playing and the singer obviously couldn't hear anything so we watched her on TV just sitting there doing nothing. It was bizarre and hilarious!

Another reason we need the laughter emoji back 😂😂What a sight that must have been

Ah yeah @Dangermoo they were deadly & then we'd pick some older ones up at Sales of Work or carboot sales.. god haven't thought of any of this in years

Yes!

Which group was it that ended up being nothing but a couple of ‘models’ & all their records having been sung by others? I keep thinking Mili Vanili but 🤷🏻‍♀️

LOVE watching TOTP reruns on a Friday night too but always think how many Jimmy Savile must have presented that they won’t play repeats of now- I bet it was always the episodes with the better music and artists!

I remember that. Also remember The Communards doing the fantastic Don't Leave Me This Way and Jimmy and Sarah Jane switching vocals. They had already performed the song a few weeks earlier. It happens at 3:03 in this video - you can see them obviously taking the piss.

1

I still say, “Flippin’ ‘eck, Tucker!” in trying moments.

1974 baby reporting for duty 🫡

Good article :

www.theguardian.com/music/2012/mar/27/jocky-wilson-other-rock-myths

And I was in Grange Hill, circa Tucker Jenkins. This is deffo the thread for us!