9th October

1980: The lady in the Volswagen bucket hat may be keen on Status Quo, but not half as much as the blokes in red caps down the front. The catch is, they may not even be the most drunk men in that vicinity. Once Peter Powell has got Dennis Waterman to hesitantly plug his non-singing of theme tunes in "the short near future" OMD's Andy McCluskey does his usual hot shoe shuffle with bass, not just dancing like a teacher but in grey sweater and brown tie dressing like one too. At least putting Legs & Co in eighteenth century gear - stylised, obviously - for a song called Casanova, by Coffee, makes sense, though the routine owes less to Regency balls than Cupid Stunt.

1986: Yes, that fresh faced, openly nervous young gent at the start is a debuting Simon Mayo, who'd be coming back for the next ten years. The Bangles were meant to be vocal equals, but Susannah Hoffs ends up proving some are more equal than nothing. Next to her Debbi Peterson, cruelly denied a drumkit to call her own, gives good pose. While Julian Cope was literally looking down on his audience, Howard Jones was marking what would be his last TOTP slot with a callback to his first, getting Jed to interpret the song as only he could. White face paint not good enough for him any more?