In October 1973, Top Of The Pops celebrated their 500th episode, which was an hour-long special.
They had 4 DJ's present it, had special guests and so on, making it a bit different from their usual half hour weekly show.
At the time, David Bowie's "Laughing Gnome" had been re-released and made it into the top 10.
For this episode, they didn't have Bowie make a studio appearance but instead, BBC commissioned a promo film to accompany the track.
So on the night, it was the Laughing Gnome film they broadcast.
Bowie doesn't appear in the film either but an actor looking like a cross between Aladdin Sane & Marcel Marceau, was the main character, along with animated gnomes.
There is a short scene in it where a gnome is reading the Beano, with Dennis The Menace the page displayed on screen.
Only around half a dozen clips from this TOTP episode survived, but luckily, The Laughing Gnome film was one of them.
That's the background story - and the images above are...
The credit caption at the end of the programme confirming the screening of the David Bowie film.
2 images from the film with gnome holding the Beano.
I managed to track down the exact issue of the Beano, so have put the page up in full.
Click images to enlarge.
No comments:
Post a Comment