Overview
It's 1983, and Top of the Pops reaches a landmark - its 1,000th edition. A time to celebrate, perhaps, but there are signs that the show is going through something of a mid-life crisis. The aristocracy of British New Pop are in the ascendant - Culture Club, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Wham! - but the rise of the video starts to threaten the show's unique appeal, which is based on getting the top artists into the studio. So producer Michael Hurll tries out new features including the first regular female presenter and the Top Ten Video Countdown. In the year that Margaret Thatcher is re-elected with a landslide majority, the mood in the charts is escapism. But 1983 is also a year of musical reinvention. Alongside the rise of indie bands like New Order, and a memorable first appearance of The Smiths with Morrissey swinging his gladioli, other acts who've inhabited the backwaters for years now fine-tune their image and enter the mainstream in a bid for chart success.