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TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 - 1999

Directed by Mike Mansfield the show was hosted by Radio Luxembourg DJ Don Moss accompanied each week by a guest co-host, Muriel Young, Tony Blackburn, Daily Express / Radio One journalist David Wigg, among others. Moss and Young had been in Mansfield's previous series Countdown, which lasted sixteen episodes. Pete Murray had agreed to host the show, but a new edict at Top Of The Pops forbidding the shows' DJ from appearing on ITV meant meant he couldn't.


Mansfield wasted no time in putting a new show together after the failure of Countdown. Talking to Disc Weekly before Countdown had even finished transmission he said of the new show "It will be pure pop with live artists and no comperes. The budget will be about the same for 'Countdown' - £1400 week." A pilot show was due for broadcast in January 1967. None of the above happened and Mansfield went back to the drawing board for new ideas. He would come up with the totally different format.


Each week a pop star would go on location to ask members of the public which songs they would like to see performed on the show, then they would cut back to the studio to see the song performed. Each show would follow one theme, for example one show followed Adam Faith on a journey to Amsterdam, taking in requests from his taxi diver, the cabin crew and fellow passengers. Talking to Disc at the time of the show's first broadcast Mansfield said "It's a family show. Of all the pop shows on TV it should reflect the most popular tastes." Disc would later refer to the show as "a visual Family Favourites."


After the first two Saturday evening shows it was moved to a regular spot on Tuesday evenings at 7.00 pm. It was networked on ITV from 9th May onwards, hoping to draw viewers away from the likes of Dee Time.


It must have been reasonably well regarded in the business judging by the acts that appeared, and in June 1967 a Southern TV spokesman told Disc "The show figures in four regions of TAM's top ten this week and due to its popularity, it will almost certainly be back in the autumn." However, despite a good prime time placement it was dropped after the one series.


According to a report in the NME in August 1967 Southern TV did not rule out the possibility of the show's return at the beginning of 1968, albeit after a short run of yet another one of Southern's Mansfield produced shows, New Release. Mike Mansfield confirmed the show's return for a new series talking to Disc in September saying "There may be some small changes, but basically the format of the show will be the same" but in the end it only resulted in a one-off return in September.



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Southern

2nd April 1966, 14th June 1966, 1st October 1966 - 23rd December 1966