A MISSING episode of Top of the Pops featuring Blue Peter presenter Lesley Judd dancing with Pan’s People has been recovered from eBay.
| TOP OF THE POPS (tx 12/02/76) Presented by Noel Edmonds |
CHART POSITION |
| MARMALADE ‘Falling Apart At The Seams’ |
New |
| BARBARA DICKSON ‘Answer Me’ |
#9 |
| THE WALKER BROTHERS ‘No Regrets’ |
#7 |
| BILLY OCEAN ‘Love Really Hurts Without You’ |
New |
| THE O’JAYS ‘I Love Music’ (danced to by Pan’s People) |
#30 |
| ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA ‘Evil Woman’ |
New |
| GUYS ‘N’ DOLLS‘You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me’ | New |
| THE SURPRISE SISTERS ‘La Booga Rooga’ |
New |
| DAVID RUFFIN ‘Walk Away From Love’ (video) |
#10 |
| MANUEL & THE MUSIC OF THE MOUNTAINS ‘Rodrigo’s Guitar Concerto De Aranjuez (Theme From 2nd Movement)’ (Pan’s People) | #8 |
| SLIK ‘Forever And Ever’ |
#1 |
The recovered 1976 edition is presented by Noel Edmonds and also features performances by Billy Ocean, Marmalade, Guys ‘N’ Dolls, The Walker Brothers and Electric Light Orchestra.
A domestic Philips N1500 video recording of the show was purchased from the internet auction site by a consortium including classic TV organisation Kaleidoscope in December.
Despite being 34 years old, the tape is said to “play perfectly”.
The episode, broadcast on February 12, 1976, is particularly notable for the only appearance of then Blue Peter presenter Lesley Judd with Pan’s People.
Judd, a former dancer, performed a routine to top 10 single ‘Rodrigo’s Guitar Concerto De Aranjuez (Theme From 2nd Movement)’ with the regular TOTP troupe.
A recording of the rehearsal for the song – which reached number 3 in the charts and proved to be the biggest hit for orchestra Manuel & The Music Of The Mountains – appeared on the next edition of Blue Peter, transmitted February 16, 1976.
Though the children’s show was retained in the BBC archives, the corporation wiped the TOTP episode. Prior to the recovery, all that survived were clips of ELO and Guys ‘N’ Dolls.
Chris Perry of volunteer group Kaleidoscope described the find as “one in a million”.
He said: “Nine times out of ten when old tapes turn up for sale on eBay they are just junk and a waste of money.
“But in a rare case of it actually being correctly labelled, we recovered a 1500 cassette containing the missing TOTP advertised. That’s a one in a million chance.”
The episode will now feature in a forthcoming Kaleidoscope music-themed event set to take place in June, when it will officially be handed to the BBC.
Below are some stills from the recovered episode:
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- Marmalade
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- Billy Ocean
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- Guys ‘N’ Dolls
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- Pan’s People featuring Lesley Judd
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- Slik
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- Top of the Pop end credits
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- Noel Edmonds
Wiped News 
but this doesnt make sense this edition was saved by Kal a few yers ago from Bruce Forsyth !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Are you sure? Chris appeared on Solent Radio last week and said it was a new recovery.
Brucie recorded all the shows with his daughter ie Guys and dolls, so we need to really conform which one that is
Do you have the item number from ebay I would love to see what was listed on the auction
No, AFAIA the page went down after the auction closed.
SThats a shame as you can usually view old auctions for a little while.
Be realy good to have this on Dvd,some superb songs
It’s great to read about these discoveries but not much chance any of us interested getting the chance of seeing them in full ? Unlikely once returned to the BBC it would ever be re-broadcast
If 01/07/76 had turned up on an N1500 tape before it was due in the BBCFour repeat schedules last week (replaced obviously by 08/07/76) would they have broadcast it from a home video recording ? Unlikely
There’s enough BBC channels to dedicate a few hours a week to showing a selection of these recoveries in their entirity, whatever they may be. something like Frank Muir’s TV Heaven exercise some twenty years ago. There’s enough of an enlightended audience out there who would watch/record to see some of the gems, even if the BBC had the final say regarding watchable/viewer-friendly. Anything is better than nothing and can only be constructive in spreading the word even a little bit more to those who might know a lead to recoveries being made. Apart from which I want to see some!
I would be particularly interested in seeing this edition of TOTP as I was in the audience as a 15 year old, filmed close-up, dancing to Billy Ocean. I would love to show my (grown-up) children! Any idea how we could get to see a copy?