05.11.03
BBC
Prime celebrates 40 years of Top of the Pops with an international
viewer vote
BBC
PRIME, the great British entertainment channel, will celebrate the
40th anniversary of Top of the Pops with a special New Years Eve
music countdown. Throughout November and December, BBC Prime viewers
across Europe, the Middle East and Africa will be able to vote for
their favourite music acts from a selection pop classics from the
past 40 years via the BBC Prime website www.bbcprime.com/totp40.
The
Top of the Pops anniversary special will be exclusively hosted for
BBC Prime by singer Melanie C, first known to many as Sporty Spice
from the international pop sensation, the Spice Girls. The music
acts will be broadcast in order, as voted by viewers, on Wednesday
31 December from 22:00 CET. This is the first time all BBC Prime
viewers have been able to join in a single, international vote to
decide scheduling.
The
BBC Prime Top of the Pops voting website enables BBC Prime viewers
to watch clips of some of the biggest names in pop performing on
the show over the past 40 years. These include Abba, Paul McCartney,
Robbie Williams, Kylie Minogue, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen and
Elton John. Viewers then vote for their favourite clips and can
watch the New Years Eve special to see the results.
BBC
Prime broadcasts Top of the Pops every Saturday at 17:15 CET and
repeated on Sundays at 00:30 CET. The music artists playing each
week reflect the top forty line-up in the UK that week.
Viewers
can find out more about BBC Prime programmes, availability and schedules
by visiting www.bbcprime.com.
Notes
to Editors:
BBC
PRIME is broadcast to over 12 million subscribers in more than 100
countries and territories. Over 2200 hours of new programming are
transmitted each year, including Parkinson, Top of the Pops, EastEnders,
The Weakest Link and BBC LEARNING (the BBC's unique overnight educational
service). This flagship British cable channel shows the best of
the award-winning programmes from the BBC - the world's leading
programme maker. Subtitles are available in English, Hungarian,
Czech, Polish, Hebrew, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian.
Top
of the Pops' first ever broadcast took place on January 1st 1964,
on BBC1, and included the Rolling Stones (performing 'I Wanna Be
Your Man'), Dusty Springfield (performing 'I Only Want to be With
You'), and The Beatles (performing 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand'). Today
Top of the Pops is broadcast every Saturday at 17:15 CET on BBC
Prime to over 100 countries and territories around the world. Local
versions of Top of the Pops are also produced in several countries
as well as the Top of the Pops magazine.
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