Christmas Day 1989 means three hosts: Bruno Brookes of Gnome, Jakki Brambles CBI, and Lord Gary Davies of Wooton, all in smart outfits (dinner jackets and no tie for the lads, a slinky dress for Jakki).
New graphics fizz and bang on and off screen, this Cypher package will be used on and off until the Year Zero error.
Mike + the Mechanics perform "The living years" - or two verses and a chorus thereof. All the energy they got from the opening is dissipated with this melancholic and maudlin and static song.
Yes, it's one of the songs of the year both in sales and importance, and it's a coup to finally get them in the studio, and the whole perf will appear on TOTP2 eventually. And we don't begrudge it a place on the show. But it really shouldn't be second up.
Marc Almond Featuring Special Guest Star Gene Pitney perform "Something's gotten hold of my heart".
Like Gary Barlobe and Lulu, like George Michael and Elton John, Marc takes the first verse so he can get overshadowed by a much better vocalist. Could have seen more of that.
#TOTP #MarcAlmondFeaturingSpecialGuestStarGenePitney #MarcAlmond #GenePitney
Given who else is in the studio, I can see why they didn't book Michael Ball - not that my mother liked the decision.
The same bit of Simple Minds' video they played for three straight weeks. Then the Madonna video re-edit we saw for a month.
"Too many broken hearts" from Jason Donovan. Our Jase is in a white cotton suit, guitar slung over his back as though he's going to play that.
Naaah, all we want is for Jason to find the camera, look through his foppish fringe, and make a million viewers go all a-googlie. The rest of us can enjoy the camera doing a slow pirouette round Jase during the chorus.
For the 1989 Brits cycle, Jason Donovan was treated as a British performer, almost got nominated in "Best British Bloke" and "Best British Single".
Would he have beaten the winner in either category? Doubt it; Phil Collins was too popular amongst the "great" and the "good" of the "industry".
Kylie Minogue cannot be with us tonight, she's just finished promoting "The Delinquents" movie and is taking a well-earned break in Melbourne.
No Soul II Soul either, they'd had a row with producer Paul Ciani over the summer about live vocals and apparently weren't invited.
We've gone from January to July in about nine minutes, with one studio performance representing 40% of the year. When this chronological format breaks down, it *really* breaks down.
Remember Bros? (Ask your kid sister.) They were big last year, but this time around was "Too much".
Matt is in a red bomber jacket with flowers on the sleeves, with matching hat. White trousers. The whole effect is rather like the Kansas City NFLball team after their travelling jackets were remixed by a bunch of Swifties.
Matt doesn't find the camera, which may be a deliberate decision, but means he looks distant, less involved than Jason a few minutes ago.
London Boys get one final run-out with "London nights". Rob is dressed as a cowboy, Edem as a cop.
Both wear spangly leather jackets with lots of rhinestones, it's not if but *when* the jackets come off to reveal the vest and muscular arms. Backflips and pirouettes in the instrumental break, natch.
The London Boys made nothing songs, and sounded so good doing it. Glad they got this swansong; a desperate shame it is their final appearance.
The Beautiful South with "Song for whoever". Paul and Dave are in casual polo-necks, the rest of the band performs.
*Really* not sure about the line of snowmen just behind them. One duff note and the band will be pulverised and turned into ice, or something like that.
Sonia and "You'll never stop me from loving you". Lots of warm lights tonight, oranges and reds dominate, there's a gorgeous pink-and-turquoise effect on the curve of the stage above Sonia. She's alone on the stage, no dry ice, none of the backing dancers from the summer.
Close camera angles mean that she fills the frame, a bundle of nervous energy. The Bonnie Langford of the 1990s.
Blackbox with "Ride on time". Another week, another studio performance - if they ever made a video, #TOTP never played it.
Katrin continues to mime to Loletta's voice, Mr. Black and Mr. Box chug out meaningless chords on their keyboards, and the whole thing is shot really very darkly. Still, plenty of close-ups of Katrin's face.
Heather Small provided the soundalike vocal on the version most of us bought, so it's her biggest hit.
Moment of the show: at the start of "All around the world". Lisa Stansfield catches the eye of the camera, delivers her opening line "I don't know where my baby is", cocks one eyebrow, and we're in her world.
Black beret, black spangly jacket, is that a little nose-ring or is Lisa pleased to see us? Kiss curls are her trademark, and the voice is something else we'll never tire of.
Vies with Jason and the Londons as Performance of the Night.
Our group declare to be true
Ebly Pamplemousse
Snaprails