It started on 2 October 1961 and features the letters of viewers offering praise, criticism and observations on BBC television programmes of recent weeks.

By October 1999, Points of View had moved to a Sunday early evening slot, being presented by Terry Wogan[3] and now included emails in addition to letters and telephone calls.

Although, much less common now, the show has over the decades featured many a letter beginning "Why, oh why, oh why..." and signed "Upset of Uxbridge" or "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells", or something similar (these days, most, if not all, simply use their real names).

In a later episode, a woman claims she has had two letters read out on Points of View, and that "they say if you get three, you're automatically sectioned under the Mental Health Act."

[7] Between 1963 and 1970, Robert Robinson (later replaced by Sarah Ward, and Gaynor Morgan Rees) presented a version designed for children's letters entitled Junior Points of View.

The original theme tune to the programme was the first 13 seconds of Kid Ory's trad jazz piece "Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula", played by the Dutch Swing College Band.

When the series returned in 1979 a new piece called "Northern soul" was used before switching in 1982 to adopting the Beatles' "When I'm Sixty-Four" as its theme tune (because of the lyric "Send me a postcard, drop me a line, stating point of view").