I was looking forward to this weeks re-run of totp from 1976, only to find that it wasn't on. there was no explanation as to why. I was led to believe that they were going to play every totp every week indefinitely. Whats going on?

The general consensus on this seems to be that because the 1976 and 1977 archive of Top Of The Pops is still missing a dozen or so episodes, the BBC are allowing time to "lag" every now and again to fill in the gaps. So it looks likely that each surviving episode will be aired, but not necessarily in its corresponding week. Expect a "Sky At Night" interruption every month whilst the TOTP get further and further behind... There's a missing episode in July which will allow us to catch up by a week, and a handful from - I think - October, November and December. Hopefully, the Christmas editions will go out in their corresponding week as we should have caught up by then due to the missing episodes. Thursday 12th May will pick up with the Thursday 6th May 1976 edition.

Thanx for clarifying this. I thought the reason they started in 1976 was because this was when the full archive had begun, apparently not though. I'll look forward to seeing it again next week.

Yes, they were wrong to suggest that. It was a very misleading selling point on their behalf. Here is a link to the website which has all the episode details and which also highlights the episodes which are missing:

z6.invisionfree.com/popscene/index.php?showforum=66

Upcoming missing episodes at a glance:

1/7/76
12/8/76
2/9/76
16/9/76
11/11/76
18/11/76
2/12/76
16/12/76
10/2/77
2/3/77
4/8/77
8/9/77

So the 15th of July should feature my adorable features as One Hundred Ton and a Feather - but will it? We shall see.

They have vowed to show each episode in full in the late-night repeat slots, JK... So we should get to see it otherwise there will be complaints!

Ruby Flipper performed a routine to "It Only Takes A Minute" two weeks earlier on the 1/7/76 edition, but unfortunately this episode was wiped.

More TOTP shenanigans ahead I'm afraid, Robbie:

The BBC are not showing the 27/5/76 episode on 3/6/11 for reasons as yet unknown.

Instead, they will show 3/6/76 on 2/6/11 drawing us level in terms of synchronicity.

The following week they are showing "The Sky At Night" in TOTP's slot again, meaning we run a week behind again after that, presumably up until the geniunely missing 1/7/76 episode.

Alexis Petridis on TOTP and pop music in 1976 and now:

"If you haven't seen it, it's difficult to express how awful TOTP - and by extension - pop music seems to have been in 1976. Every week, something comes on that causes you to be gripped by the absolute certainty that an unequivocal nadir has been reached and that things can only get better: second-division glam-rockers Mud going disco in a desperate attempt to stave off the inevitable; Dave Lee Travis's mirthless novelty record Convoy GB. It's invariably followed by something even worse: JJ Barrie's No Charge; second-division glam rockers the Rubettes going country in a desperate attempt to stave off the inevitable; and, my personal favourite, Paul Nicholas's awe-inspiring Reggae Like It Used to Be."

Was 1976 pop's worst year?

This week:the astoundingly horrible Heavy Metal Kids, who appeared to be fronted by Ronnie Wood's scrotum, and a 'dance' routine for Bowie's TVC15 that made witless people look intelligent.

Indeed, one of the weirder Ruby Flipper performances last week...

And in the end they did show the 27/5/76 episode, despite the EPG claiming otherwise.

There's no edition this Thursday, instead it 3/6/76 will be shown on Monday next week.

The editions are lagging further and further behind in terms of synchronicity due to "The Sky At Night" popping up in the schedule every five weeks, but the aforementioned missing episode scenario should level things back up by Christmas, just in time for the project to be axed(!)...

Posted on TOTP Facebook page

reminds all you pop-pickers that there is NO TOTP on BBC4 tonight, but you can catch the 3rd June 1976 edition of the show on Monday night at 19:30 (unedited repeats at 01:15 on 17th June)

I've been watching these and I love them

In fact..with a bit of re-jigging I reckon the format could easily be done again today.

Few shows generate the sort of excitement about music ToTPs does.