The actor, comedian and star of Radio 4’s Gossip and Goddesses with Granny Kumar on her favourite childhood shows, from chart-topping stars to the show that represented British Asians
As a teenager, I used to love watching Top of the Pops. Growing up in a small, rural, mining village in the Midlands, it plugged me into the world out there – I thought if I went to London, T Rex and The Osmonds would be standing there, waiting for me. At that time, you had to listen to the radio on a Sunday night to find out the Top 20, so watching musicians on TV was a huge thing. My parents would see David Bowie, and say things like, “Is it a boy or a girl? This is music?”, but they also really enjoyed watching it, especially my dad. I was born in 1961 so I was mostly watching it in the 70s – we went through glitter rock, glam rock, androgyny, all the way to emerging acoustic singer-songwriters. My dad really liked Bowie, funk and soul, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder. He recognised great voices, and he really appreciated them.
Part of the pleasure of watching the show was seeing all of the excited audience members who had managed to get tickets, and who would be waving at the camera, trying to get into the shot with the DJ or – even better – attempting to dance to songs like Bohemian Rhapsody or Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West). That was a huge part of the comic value – watching people who had practised their moves, no doubt, for weeks. Genres such as glam rock were quite male-dominated, so you didn’t always see that many women on the show, apart from Pan’s People, of course, all of these incredibly young women who weren’t wearing very much. Watching that with your mum and dad could be a little uncomfortable.
