Was it just me or did The Cutter by Echo and The Funnymen (Echo wearing a tasteful off the shoulder number) go straight into Melba Moore on Top of the Pops 1983 last night or was there something originally in between? I sometimes think of Tony Hall as Hannibal Lecter, with that nice mask to stop him biting chinks of video and film out of classic programmes.

"Spare us The Cutter" into a great big obvious splice.
I'm not sure BBC Four were being ironic - whichever youngster they have manning their Twitter handle certainly wouldn't understand irony (nor that ghastly tedious "TOTPFacts" account they parrot, run by a fool).
It isn't the fault of the BBC Four team who are being given told what to do by Hall with the TOTP repeats in order to preserve what's left of the repeat run (and not a lot over the next few years with Mike Smith being posthumously erased).

Oh Chris I'm horrified. Do you mean that the missing segment (if there was one) could involve Mike Smith - or possibly even a bigger star? Where is Jody Foster - oops, mustn't muddle real people with characters they play or I'll end up in Coronation Street - Agent Clarice Starling when you need her?

The missing chunk, as it happens, was your US Chart slot - with clips of Eddie Rabbit & Crystal Gayle, Patti Austin & James Ingram and the #1 Men At Work - I'm presuming you then linked into Melba Moore back in the UK studio given the absence of any link on BBC Four (you certainly do that in your appearance on the show, when Michael & Gordon managed to get Patti Austin & James Ingram in the UK studio with the sublime Baby Come To Me)

Incidentally, here's a future banned edition from August 1983 featuring both yourself and Mike Smith

Oh - and to add insult to injury, after Laura Branigan there was a second edit as Janice Long mentions you had recorded the song previously.

Fabulous! Isn't life magically funny. I'm lucky to be able to appreciate the theatre of the absurd.

If anyone wants a copy of this particular censored TOTP with JK intact, download this (only available to download for 7 days btw)
wetransfer.com/downloads/e3d24216639e837...0170122114501/fb6aa4

And Tony Hall's reply to my letter…

Dear Jonathan

Thank you for your recent email about ‘Top of the Pops: The Story of 1983’ shown recently on BBC Four. Tony Hall has asked me to respond to your email.

‘TOTP – 1983’ was a retrospective look at the year in music, seen largely through the prism of TOTP. We made a conscious decision to base the historical sections around personal recollections, and largely told the story through the contributors’ experiences and memories.

A feature of the programme was about the increasing shift to music video and how TOTP could continue to exist and make an impact. I am aware the programme touched briefly on chart rundowns outside the UK. This was to reflect Michael Hurl’s attempt to deal with the challenge of global video, by adding foreign ‘chart reporting’ with stories about international reports. In-keeping with the established format of this programme, we relied heavily on Kid Jensen’s personal recollection to tell this story to viewers.

Regarding your more general point about our TOTP archive, I have nothing further to add to what I have previously said to you, except to reiterate that we reserve the right to continue to review and edit this in whatever way we see fit.

Your sincerely

It's awfully sad - and probably part of the BBC News masterplan of Hall & Co - but a public funded organisation that refuses to explain itself to those that fund it over a matter so small is one I no longer want to contribute to funding.

Patti Austin & James Ingram live in the UK studio the latest casualty of Lord Hall-Hall's Knife of Arrogance - here's why:

It is actually a revealing view of the importance the BBC and society places on truth; my influence through TOTP, Entertainment USA and No Limits with my SUN column in the 1980s was very substantial.

A 'behind the scenes' look at how that particular edition of TOTP was put together

"we reserve the right to continue to review and edit this in whatever way we see fit.".

The arrogance of it wouldn't be quite so bad if he spoke in the same way to the likes of Whittingdale, The Daily Mail and other assorted thugs and loons, but he cowers before such people whilst acting like a god when brushing aside the BBC's own supporters.

And arrogance it most certainly is, Pru.

The BBC, under Lord Hall-Hall, have forgotten they are answerable to each and every license holder. And something as utterly trivial as a 35 year pop programme repeated, as they said in 2011, "unedited"; if they refuse to answer questions about the reasons for their needless editing since 2012 (and let us not forget they are paying someone our money to do the edits) this tells me there are extremely serious issues of transparency throughout the organisation from top to bottom. To fend off, for instance, James Masterton's FOI request as to why they were removing all trace of Dave Lee Travis as a "private editorial matter" suggests that with more serious matters they are also playing dirty. With our money.

But I also maintain, and have done for years, that the elitist BBC management utterly despise the BBC Four/Radio 2 demographic, which is why they have turned R2 into "BBC One on the radio". rinsing the place of actual DJ's in place of (predominantly) irksome TV presenters & celebrities. If you aren't "one of them" (a left-leaning politico who sees themselves as 'above it all' and eats the news for breakfast, dinner & tea) then you either eat a dumb dish or you starve. Today's news of Tony Blackburn (up until last year broadcasting live to an adoring audience at 1pm on a Saturday) being given Sounds Of The Sixties in the 6am slot (when most people are still asleep) is simply another example of this - it's not "good news", it's the BBC axing one old man for ageist reasons, and installing another old man to broadcast to a nation still asleep in bed - the real message being "Fuck off old farts, forget the 60s and listen to the dude from the X-Factor". And it is - shunting the show to 6am might as well be be shunting it to 2pm - R2 telling the audience of that show to fuck off, and BBC management showing the subversive old duffer Tony that he belongs on the Graveyard Slot.

I'd also like to know what part Phil Swern is playing in this game of DJ Demotions & Audience Insulting given both POTP and SOTS are his supposedly 'independent' productions.

The relegation of SOTS to graveyard mornings is so dreadful I wince; of course the Beeb will say it's because us oldies are dying off - announced the same day that the NHS is described in crisis because we are all living longer.

JK2006 wrote:
The relegation of SOTS to graveyard mornings is so dreadful I wince; of course the Beeb will say it's because us oldies are dying off - announced the same day that the NHS is described in crisis because we are all living longer.

I still won't forgive them for reducing Roger Day to a weekend Sunday slot.