Episodes featuring disgraced presenters and artists such as Jimmy Savile, Dave Lee Travis, Jonathan King, Rolf Harris, Gary Glitter and R. Kelly are no longer repeated.

By the 1970s, the Top 30 was being used and the show was extended from thirty to forty-five minutes duration and songs that were featured outside the charts were chosen according to Dorfman and his fellow producer's Melvyn Cornish's personal taste and judgement.

[31][32] As a result, Stewart hired Johnny Pearson to conduct an in-studio orchestra to provide musical backing on select performances, beginning with the 4 August 1966 edition.

[58][59] Following the strike, Nash was replaced as executive producer by Michael Hurll, who introduced more of a "party" atmosphere to the show, with performances often accompanied by balloons and cheerleaders, and more audible audience noise and cheering.

[citation needed] The programme moved in September 1985 to a new regular half-hour timeslot of 7 pm on Thursdays, following wider reforms to BBC TV scheduling by then-controller Michael Grade.

[citation needed] Following a fall in viewing figures and a general perception that the show had become 'uncool' (acts like the Clash had refused to appear in the show in previous years), incoming executive producer Stanley Appel (who had worked on the programme since 1966 as cameraman, production assistant, director and stand-in producer[64]) introduced a radical new format on 3 October 1991, in which the Radio 1 DJs were replaced by a team of relative unknowns, such as Claudia Simon and Tony Dortie who had previously worked for Children's BBC, 17-year-old local radio DJ Mark Franklin, Steve Anderson, Adrian Rose and Elayne Smith, who was replaced by Femi Oke in 1992.

[citation needed] The new presenting team would take turns hosting (initially usually in pairs but sometimes solo), and would often introduce acts in an out-of-vision voiceover over the song's instrumental introduction.

[citation needed] By 1994, much of the 'Year Zero' revamp was quickly undone and the arrival of Ric Blaxill as producer in February 1994 signalled a return to presentation from established Radio 1 DJs Simon Mayo, Mark Goodier, Nicky Campbell and Bruno Brookes.

In an attempt to keep the links between acts as fresh as the performances themselves, the so-called "golden mic" was used by, amongst others, Kylie Minogue, Meat Loaf, Chris Eubank, Damon Albarn, Harry Hill, Jack Dee, Lulu, Björk, Jarvis Cocker, Stewart Lee and Richard Herring.

[66] In 1997, incoming producer Chris Cowey phased out the use of celebrities and established a rotating team of former presenters from youth music magazine The O-Zone including Jayne Middlemiss and Jamie Theakston, as well as existing Radio 1 DJs Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball.

On 28 November 2003 (three months after the appointment of Andi Peters as executive producer), the show saw one of its most radical overhauls since the ill-fated 1991 'Year Zero' revamp in what was widely reported as a make-or-break attempt to revitalise the long-running series.

Edith Bowman co-presented its hour-long swansong, along with Jimmy Savile (who was the main presenter on the first show), Reggie Yates, Mike Read, Pat Sharp, Sarah Cawood, Dave Lee Travis, Rufus Hound, Tony Blackburn and Janice Long.

[citation needed] The final day of recording was 26 July 2006[74] and featured archive footage and tributes, including the Rolling Stones – the very first band to appear on Top of the Pops – opening with "The Last Time", the Spice Girls, David Bowie, Wham!, Madonna, Beyoncé, Gnarls Barkley, the Jackson 5, Sonny & Cher and Robbie Williams.

The show closed with a final countdown, topped by Shakira, as her track "Hips Don't Lie" (featuring Wyclef Jean) had climbed back up to number one on the UK Singles Chart earlier in the day.

[citation needed] Fearne Cotton, who was the current presenter, was unavailable to co-host for the final edition due to her filming of ITV's Love Island in Fiji but opened the show with a quick introduction recorded on location, saying "It's still number one, it's Top of the Pops".

[78] In July 2009, Pet Shop Boys singer Neil Tennant criticised the BBC for ending the programme, stating that new acts were missing out on "that great moment of being crowned that week's Kings of Pop".

[citation needed] Live performances – interspersed with Comic Relief appeal films – included acts such as Franz Ferdinand, Oasis, Take That, U2, James Morrison and Flo Rida (that week's Number 1).

[106][better source needed] In 1991, Nirvana refused to mime to the pre-recorded backing track of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" with Kurt Cobain singing in a deliberately low voice and altering lyrics in the song, and bassist Krist Novoselic swinging his bass over his head and drummer Dave Grohl playing randomly on his kit.

[105] During their performance of "Don't Leave Me This Way" the Communards singers Jimmy Somerville and Sarah Jane Morris swapped lyrics for part of the song towards the end.

[110] From 1966 to 1980, Top of the Pops had an in-studio orchestra conducted by Johnny Pearson accompany select musical performances, with The Ladybirds (later Maggie Stredder Singers) providing backing vocals.

[112][113][114] As The Telegraph recounted, Pearson and the orchestra improvised accompaniments with about 20 minutes of rehearsal time per song, and the musicians, "almost all middle-aged, often struggled with the enormous range of rock and pop tunes with which they were presented.

This group started as a seven-piece with three men (Gavin Trace, Floyd Pearce and Phil Steggles) and four women (Menhenick, Gillespie, Patti Hammond and Lulu Cartwright).

[152] By late 1981, Legs & Co (by this time Anita Chellamah had replaced Peters) had become more integrated into the studio audience, rather than performing set-piece routines, as a result of the 'party atmosphere' brought in by Michael Hurll.

Due to the then standard practice of wiping videotape, the vast majority of the episodes from the programme's history prior to 1976 are considered lost media, including any official recording of the only live appearance by the Beatles.

Most editions after this exist in full, though a number of episodes transmitted live during the 1980s were archived with slight technical issues (e.g. missing audio, typically restored by off-air recordings in repeats).

[164] The last thirteen minutes of the 19 August 1965 edition of TOTP survives, and features live performances from Herman's Hermits, Sonny & Cher, Jonathan King, and The Byrds.

[165] Some off-air recordings, made by fans at home with a microphone in front of the TV speaker, exist in varying quality, including the Jimi Hendrix Experience performing a live version of "Hey Joe" in December 1966.

[168] Other individual but complete clips that have surfaced over recent years include The Hollies performing "Bus Stop", and The Jimi Hendrix Experience playing both "Purple Haze" and "The Wind Cries Mary".

[citation needed] Thanks to a deal between the BBC and German television network ZDF around the turn of the 1970s, several TOTP clips were sent over to be shown on Disco, a similar-styled chart show.

[citation needed] The United States had its own similar series, American Bandstand, which aired nationally on ABC from 1957 to 1987 (although it would continue in first-run syndication until 1988 and end its run on USA in 1989).