For a period of time, the BBC ran a daily version of TOTP2 in which celebrities chose their favourite archive performances.

These celebrities, typically comedians, have included Vic Reeves & Bob Mortimer, Phill Jupitus and Jack Dee.

Examples include the Bee Gees, Elvis Presley, Shania Twain and Dionne Warwick specials which aired between 1997–2003.

[6] The BBC planned to replace the main Top of the Pops special on Christmas Day 2008 with a special edition of TOTP2, that would have included some live performances and archive footage as well as the 2008 Christmas number one UK single; these plans were later scrapped due to complaints by viewers.

This led to Simon Cowell asking the BBC to buy the rights to the Top of the Pops brand so he could produce a version of it for ITV1.

On 27 June 2009, TOTP2 returned unexpectedly to celebrate the life of Michael Jackson, who had died two days earlier.

It also saw the return of "Whole Lotta Love" as the shows theme tune, this variant being a mix of the original and the 1998 remix version.

The first programme covered the period from 1964 to 1975 (the era prior to the full-show reruns starting in 1976) and subsequent editions have compiled a selection of music from each year.

[11] The repeat run of Top of the Pops on BBC Four was already omitting episodes featuring Savile and Dave Lee Travis (due to a suspended sentence), while Jonathan King's reviews of the American charts were edited out of the repeats, due to his conviction.

[12] Additionally, performances by Gary Glitter are also no longer shown following the singer's conviction for downloading child pornography.

From 2004 onwards, repeats of edited episodes of TOTP2 have been shown on a number of UKTV channels, including Dave,[clarification needed] and Yesterday.