IT was good to see Top of The Pops back on the TV during the recent festivities. This music programme was aired on the BBC on a weekly basis for 42 years before being axed due to low viewing figures.

I was brought up in Salters Lane children’s home, in Darlington, and during the Eighties the kids and me could not wait for a Thursday evening when Top of The Pops was on the box.

We even had dancing competitions, and the living room became a frenzy of song and dance as we shuffled to bands like Madness and Bad Manners before supper time.

Top of The Pops lost millions of viewers before the show came to an end in 2006. I do not blame it on the fact that there are now more music channels on TV.

I blame it on the fact that there has been no good music since the Eighties, which only serves to encourage people to watch gardening programmes instead.

Christopher Wardell, Darlington.