Top of the Pops: The Story of 1998 (S2022EP BBC Two Sat 20 May 2022)

Pop has a resurgence after Britpop’s peak, and girl groups are still taking centre stage as the nation’s favourite weekly music show approaches the end of the 1990s.

All Saints, with their cool grooves and cargo pants, and Irish four-piece B*Witched, who became the youngest girl group to have a number one with C’est La Vie in 1998, are two quartets with sisters and friends at their hearts. The Euro factor took a cool turn with French duo Air creating a new 90s sound with their chilled laidback electronica, while Robbie Williams continues his solo rise to fame. With a World Cup dominating the summer, a few football anthems hitting the charts, and a certain Vindaloo causing havoc in the Top of the Pops studio, it was also a big year for sport.

B*Witched’s All Saints, Edele Lynch, and Lindsay Armaou, Air’s Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel, and Del Amitri’s Keith Allen, Trevor Nelson, Guy Chambers, and Justin Currie are among the contributors.

Airdate: Sat 20 May 2022 at 20:00 on BBC Two

Season 2022 Episode 

Top of the Pops is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1 January 1964 and 30 July 2006. It was traditionally shown every Thursday evening on BBC1, except for a short period on Fridays in late 1974, before being again moved to Fridays in 1996, and then to Sundays on BBC Two in 2005. Each weekly programme consisted of performances from some of that week’s best-selling popular music artists, with a rundown of that week’s singles chart. Additionally, there was a special edition of the programme on Christmas Day (and usually, until 1984, a second such edition a few days after Christmas), featuring some of the best-selling singles of the year.