Big Hits: TOTP 1964-1975 (BBC4, 8.30pm)
Law And Order (Five, 10pm)

TOP Of The Pops may have been axed, but the BBC has an awful lot of historical musical moments from the show in the archives – and isn’t about to let them go to waste.

The show, axed in 2006, lives on in programmes such as Big Hits, which features performances from the first 12 years.

Expect to get all nostalgic over the likes of the Rolling Stones, Peter Sarstedt, Tom Jones, Stevie Wonder, Julie Driscoll, Queen, The Kings, Procol Harem... well, the list goes on and on.

The starting point is 1975, with the documentary charting how the programme reflected a challenging year in pop culture, as glam lost its sparkle, punk began emerging from the shadows kicking and spitting, and Brotherhood Of Man and The Wurzels were in the charts.

AMERICAN viewers went into shock last year when Law And Order was cancelled. After breaking the news, NBC Universal Television Entertainment chairman Jeff Gaspin noted that the legacy of Dick Wolf ’s original series “will continue to make an impact like no other series before”.

For the programme has the distinction of being the joint longest-running drama series in US TV history, having matched the record set by western series Gunsmoke.

When Law And Order was cancelled, the Mayor of New York – where the series is set – paid tribute, as did the city’s police commissioner, Ray Kelly.

He told the New York Post, “Having spent most of my life in police work, I typically don’t bother with cop shows, if only because the mistakes and misrepresentations are too tedious to endure.

“Law And Order was the exception. The show produced convincing detectives, prosecutors, criminals and oddball witnesses. Even the corpses were interesting.”

Over here, Law And Order still has some way to go.

Channel Five is only up to season 17, meaning there’s still two-and-a-half series to get through.

And we also have the British series of the show, starring Bradley Walsh, which is running on ITV1.