There was a time when live music was a staple of primetime TV, and one brand cast a shadow over every rival: the BBC’s much imitated, rarely rivalled flagship chart show Top of the Pops.

Then the internet happened – and TOTP died in 2006. For the last decade, every attempt to wrest the pop agenda back from YouTube and the channels has been met with failure and inevitable comparisons with what went before.

On Friday, the BBC brought back live music to the primetime schedules with a show that, its presenters are at pains to insist, has nothing to do with its famous forebear.

Sounds Like Friday Night, presented by Radio 1’s Greg James and Radio 1Xtra’s Dotty, is a music show featuring live performances in front of a dancing audience in the BBC’s revamped television studios. But both say it is much more that an imitation of Top of the Pops.

The half-hour show, which is being made by James Corden’s production company, features its celebrity guests in comedy sketches and is being co-hosted by a special guest each week, kicking off with singer Jason Derulo.

It is a feature that takes direct inspiration from Corden’s US chat show, where Carpool Karaoke, in which celebrities sing along to their own songs in a car, has been so successful that it has spawned its own spin-off.

“We always knew you can’t bring a straight music show like Top of the Pops back,” said James, who emphasised that the show would live online as much as on TV. “In 2017, it’s about creating something new you can’t get from watching a video on YouTube, or just listening to a Spotify playlist. You have to create an event that draws people in.”

The show, held in front of an audience, some who had travelled from as far as Kuwait, Germany and Canada, opened with a performance by Derulo, who sang If I’m Lucky, followed by performances by Charlie Puth and Jessie Ware. Derulo, who was co-presenting, closed the show with an acoustic version of his hit Want To Want Me.



The live music was broken up with comedy sketches, including one which saw Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters doing voiceover intros for some BBC shows, from EastEnders to Homes Under the Hammer, while another saw Derulo challenged to a basketball game against the distracting background of a mariachi band. The much loved BBC satirical pirate radio hosts from People Just Do Nothing made a guest appearance.

Guests on next week’s programme will include Liam Gallagher and Liam Payne, with Demi Lovato and Loyle Carner featuring on future line-ups.

Speaking after the show, both presenters were on something of a high. “Derulo was on the form of his life,” said James. “I felt like it was quite a confident start, which is great because I didn’t want to have to apologise for doing this show. There’s no reason why big artists shouldn’t have a home on TV. It felt quite rowdy, like a gig, which was great.”

Dotty said: “It was incredible from start to finish. There is nothing like that feeling when you know you’re live on TV. I was definitely the most nervous as this was my first time doing anything like this.



“Hopefully now people have seen the first show they will now realise that the only similarity to Top of the Pops is that there’s live music and that, actually, it’s so much more than that.”

In a world where people are bombarded with musical and TV content at all times, James said there was a contrasting appetite for curated shows such as this, where viewers had to make no choices and could just settle down for half an hour of entertainment.

Dotty said it was not a risky move for the BBC, as there was a gaping hole for a light-hearted live music show on TV. The other musical offerings on the BBC scheduled for Friday night include a pre-recorded Tears for Fears concert, the Stereophonics joining Jools Holland on BBC2, and a replay of an episode of TOTP from 1984.

“There are extremes of music TV at the moment, where you have The X Factor which is really disposable and you’ll have forgotten about it by Monday, and then there’s Jools Holland,” Dotty said. “But where’s the thing in the middle for people who don’t want that overly commercialised thing, but don’t necessarily want to sit down for the Jools Holland musical education?”

The BBC have toyed with bringing back a live music show for years, with a Top of The Pops revival fronted by Fearne Cotton and Dermot O’Leary rumoured back in 2015.

Over the decades, as well as being a family-friendly TV show, Top of the Pops played host to some controversial and avant-garde performances, from the Stranglers destroying the stage to the KLF’s costumed appearance alongside Gary Glitter. James insisted despite its primetime slot and targeted family audience, Sounds Like Friday Night would be open to stirring the pot just as TOTP once did.

“Because it’s live, there’s so much opportunity for stuff to happen,” he said. “And whether it be a Madonna falling off the stage or some other mishap, because we’ll have such a mix of egos and artists, there hopefully will be those moments where people will go ‘oh my god, did you see what happened’. We’re hoping for a bit of controversy.”

Dotty added: “If the plan was to play it super-safe then they would never have got us to present it.”

While comedy sketches featuring celebrities have long been a staple of American late-night shows, they have fallen notoriously flat on British TV, most recently on ITV’s widely panned Late Night Live.

James admitted he was aware of treading the fine line between funny and excruciatingly awkward. He emphasised that each sketch would be personalised for the celebrity involved, drawing from their own biographies, rather than just having “Dave Grohl on the moving piano, or something equally awkward and incongruous.”

Dotty said that the show would not be bound to the charts, as TOTP was, and not to a specific genre, but would be a reflection of music today, where the cross-pollination of genres and artists has meant urban radio stations such as Radio 1Xtra now have songs by Katy Perry on their playlists, while grime artists are often on Radio 1.

“People are consuming music in that way now,” Dotty said. “Music is crossing so many boundaries these days that there need to be more platforms that embrace that. I’m quite hopeful that this show just embraces music lovers. Between Greg and I, we’ve got all the genres covered.”