How did you start working on TOTP?

Jimmy: We did a programme called the 'Teen and Twenty Record Club' with all sorts of people on it as a pilot. When the BBC said they liked it, it was at the behest of the children of the BBC moguls who were being forced to acknowledge pop music. The BBC, being the BBC, rejigged it and said they liked it and they want to do it but they are going to call it 'Top of the Pops'.

I got a call from Johnnie Stewart. He said: "My name's Johnnie Stewart, I’m working on Top of the Pops based on your thingy, can you work with me on it?"

So for the first six weeks before TOTP, John and I had the enormously difficult task of trying to decide what was going to be in the top ten six weeks hence. And out of the eight records we played on the first show six of them were in the charts and that was as big a miracle as you could get in the pop world!

What were the elements that differed from radio show?
Jimmy: It was the sort of a frenetic and fast moving pop show which had not been on TV before. They took the format of the radio show and made it pictures, and that’s the easy way of describing it.

What are your memories of the first show?

Jimmy: It was incredibly exciting and there was a great crowd of young people outside because pop stars were coming into the show and that was it! It was all live but nobody was bothered because we didn’t know any better.

I was stood up on this rostrum and in front of me was a girl and this lad. She turned round to me and said "He’s collapsed". This was when a group was playing, so I jumped off a rostrum which is something you should never do. I dragged this kid round the back and propped him up. The producer’s screaming "Where’s Jim gone, where’s Jim gone?". I did the next two links with this unconscious bloke propped between my legs. I mean very exciting, terrific.

What was the impact of that very first show? Did it change anybody’s life?
Jimmy: The majority of the people didn’t watch it because it came at 6.30 on New Years Day. In 1964 a lot of people had hangovers. It didn’t change my life because it was just a pinnacle, it was a culmination. It did change the life of many people when it became a household name. Parents watched TOTP because it was the only time they could ever join in with anything with their kids. The kids could opinionate and tell them about this that and the other - it was a 30 minute reunion of a family which at that time was threatening to break apart. It was a great fusing together.