31st March

1977: It's always tricky following up a big hit, especially so if, like David Dundas, you're deprived of your trusty piano and the orchestra have incorporated a jug band motif and chicken squawk. The Stylistics' Russell Thompkins Jr seems permanently startled, while Lynsey De Paul (with Mike Moran) finds hilarity in not being able to throw a paper behind her shoulder. See that patriotic audience go wild.

1983: So there's a woman dressed as the Easter bunny, there's Steve Wright doing without glasses despite it revealing the strange shape of his face, and then we get to the properly embarrassing bit for all concerned - New Order's notorious go at contravening the usual miming offer and performing Blue Monday live. Steven Morris: "(it) was never the easiest song to perform anyway, and everything went wrong. The synthesisers went awry. It sounded awful". Mind you, he also says "it was the only time in the show's history that a band appeared on the show and the single went down in the chart the following week", which is evidently complete rubbish. U2 knew to stick with playback, which gave Bono time to pick an appropriate hat. As is his wont, eventually he goes walkabout and launches into a completely different song. More PRS all round! Also using backing tapes in her favour Tracey Ullman literally taking her routine straight out of the bedroom mirror posing. Note in those last two the double booking with the Easter fair.

1994: Don't need to split this one up into component parts, the whole thing is on Vimeo (yes, I know this should have occurred to me weeks ago) In there you'll find Eurovision hopeful (and mother of Eliza Doolittle) Frances Ruffelle flashing her knickers, Bruce Springsteen standing in a big dark room, "the New Wave Of New Wave hits the Pops" with S*M*A*S*H and the Bee Gees being presented with the biggest vinyl record in the world before an attempt at the end of making the whole show look artier.

2000: You have to wait a bit, but Melanie C does get joined by Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes to join her after two and a half minutes of backlight work. The audience go mad at her reveal, even though there's clearly someone singing in that silhouette and Jamie's just said in his intro that they're performing together.