23rd September

1976: So why were Ruby Flipper not long for TOTP? One can speculate on the reasons, but it must be stated the decision had already been made by the time they were assigned Rick Dees And His Cast Of Idiots, which starts with an extreme close-up of Sue's derriere as if to apologise for what's about to happen. Floyd's doing well until the moment of transformation, it has to be said, after which you have to wonder how everyone's managing to keep a straight face. Except Cherry. Please do not pause the very last image of the clip, or it will haunt your dreams for ever more. For The Drifters dickie bows matched with yellow trousers is the last word in fashion.

1982: Shalamar's Jody Watley seems to stand out a bit as a spare part if she's not on lead vocals, given she wasn't a dancer and had normal hair. Still, she gives it a game go and resolves not to look querying at Howard Hewett's wet-look while receding hair and pencil tache. Before Dollar sacked off all the others who did things they tended to struggle to stand out and for space against their own backing band. They were kept sweet for the time being by being told they could join in at the end. If we're talking about image, though, things were about to be blown out of the water by the TV debut of Culture Club. Boy George is clearly a well conditioned man, but given they talked about Alison Moyet as a gender-bender in those days you can see where the confusion arose from. Just nobody mention Roy Hay has the better hat.

1993: Dancers for club hits would evolve their routines to include props in time, but for now Haddaway has to make do with women in paisley patterned loon pants and a visual effect nicked from a mobile disco. Take That did better at the moves, and they had vocals to simultaneously deal with and a shouty guest to make way to. Remember when girls in cages was a transgressive move by hair metal bands? Meanwhile The Wonder Stuff's Miles Hunt mocks the popular James T-shirt design of the time, which seems an acute thing to be targeting on prime-time family telly.