The Channel 4 programme was meant to be innocent fun for preteens, but its performances soon made it notorious as some of the worst TV ever. Although its (now grownup) stars disagree …
Forty years ago today, at 6pm on a Tuesday evening, Channel 4 screened the first episode of a new children’s television show called Minipops. It promised to showcase talented preteens singing pop covers, which sounds anodyne and inoffensive. It proved to be anything but.
The girls, plastered in makeup and as young as seven or eight, wore costumes ranging from chiffon nightwear to short skirts and high boots. The boys wore denim and leather, often with bare chests. Iffy song choices resulted in sights such as a small child singing: “Night time is the right time, we make love.”
