Top Of The Pops, which is 40 in January, gets a makeover tonight. But will it be enough to save the venerable pop institution? STEPHEN LEWIS investigates.

TUNE in to Top Of The Pops on BBC1 tonight, and you may think you have switched to the wrong channel by mistake. Gone will be the familiar driving Led Zeppelin theme tune Whole Lotta Love - so loved and hated in equal measure, but as familiar to viewers of a certain age as the Doctor Who theme.

Gone will be the tacky set, boxy logo and cheesy format. Gone will be the relentless focus on pre-teen chart-topping singles awkwardly mimed in front of a swaying mass of 14-year-olds by bands who can't really sing to save their lives.

Just before it reaches the big four-oh in January, TOTP is getting attitude. With ratings falling and the competition from MTV and weekend shows such as T4 and CD UK getting ever fiercer, the UK's first, funniest and most gloriously creaky chart show is getting a head-to-toe makeover.

Starting with tonight's one-hour special, All New Top Of The Pops will be broadcast live from the studio in an attempt to give the show a bit of much-needed edge.

There will be a brash new presenter - MTV's Tim Kash - and alongside chart-topping singles acts, there will be room for album music and exclusive performances of new songs yet to be released - plus interviews and behind-the-scenes magazine-style features on the music business.

Tonight's line-up is certainly impressive. Victoria Beckham will be going all interactive and asking viewers to vote on which of her new double-A side tracks she should perform exclusively for TOTP; Elton John will give an exclusive rendition, live from Alabama, of one of the first songs he ever performed on the show, Your Song; Kylie Minogue will perform a new album track; and there will be the first showing of the new Christmas video from Darkness.

All this, plus Nelly, Lisa Maffia, Mis-teeq, Will Young, Gareth Gates, Blazin' Squad and - of course - the official chart countdown to this week's number one, Westlife. With so many changes, the show will be virtually unrecognisable. But isn't that perhaps a sign that TOTP has had its day?

Is it really worth trying to save?

Andi Peters, the show's new executive producer and the man who has rung all the changes, clearly believes so.

Speaking on Radio 4's Front Row this week, he admitted it had become tired, and too passive for today's pop audiences. But axe it altogether? "You would have a war on your hands!" he told Front Row's Mark Lawson.

Instead, he said, the idea was to make it more relevant and spontaneous. "In the past, you could almost write down what was going to be on the show four weeks in advance!" he said. "I'm seeking to break that formula, make it a bit more spontaneous.

"Let's get a lot more exclusive songs on, let's get songs which haven't charted yet. Let's take you on tour with the artists, or behind the scenes."

The fact that the show is to be broadcast live, however, won't necessarily signal an end to mimed performances. All of tonight's acts bar one - Nelly - will be singing live. But there will still be room for mimed performances. "Some artists cannot sing live," Andi admitted. "There are some that can't sing at all! You want to give an opportunity to these people not to embarrass themselves." Whoever said the BBC didn't care?

Embarrassing or not, Tim Kash certainly seems to be looking forward to presenting the new-look show. "Like most of us, I grew up watching the show. But more importantly, it's an institution, having broken so many bands over the years," he said.

"It's a fantastic chance to be involved in re-launching the programme and breathing new life into one of the greatest music shows in television history."

That last word, however, seems oddly significant. History - isn't that really what TOTP should be confined to? After all, how can a 40-year-old be expected to appeal to today's precocious pre-teen pop audience - even allowing for the fact it is trying to go all sophisticated in a bid to reach an older, wiser audience too?

Evening Press arts correspondent Charles Hutchinson believes it is time to let the old show die.

"I think the single is dying," he says. "That's the problem for Top Of The Pops. It would be best to close it altogether and leave the cheap chart fodder to Saturday morning shows such as CD UK.

"You can't tamper with what was once an innovative and definitive barometer of pop. Top Of The Pops has had its day. It is no longer a reflection of what really matters in the broader world of rock, dance and hip-hop."

Dave Martin, lead guitarist with York alternative rock band Red Shift and the Evening Press's resident rock critic, worries that as a result of its makeover, the show will lose what made it special in the first place.

What made it different from other music shows was that it was quirky, eccentric - and, often, downright naff, he says.

"And because it was naff, it was slightly timeless. It was such a flagship for music programming, and the fact that it was naff in a way was a great leveller. You could get Metallica next to Britney Spears, all in one BBC studio, being asked to mime in front of an audience of heaving 14-year-olds.

"What was wrong with that?

"And it may not have had much credibility, but all the bands secretly wanted to be on the show. When bands such as Radiohead got invited, they would still ring their mum and say 'mum, I'm going to be on Top Of The Pops!' It has always been the benchmark of having made it. But try to make it credible and it will just be like any other programme. I worry that it will just become a cheapskate version of MTV."

Tim Hornsby, boss of York music bar Fibbers, however, believes there will always be a place for TOTP.

He's outraged that the Led Zep theme tune is being dropped. "But I don't think Top Of The Pops will ever shut up shop," he says. "It has got a valid place in British pop culture.

"It manages to change and evolve with the times, and to reflect modern pop culture - which at the moment is sh*te! But I'm as much in favour of Top Of The Pops as I'm in favour of Emmerdale and Coronation Street. It's an institution. Let it carry on."

So it will, starting tonight.

An hour-long launch edition of All New Top Of The Pops is on BBC1 at 7pm tonight. The show will then return to 30 minutes every Friday from next week at 7pm on BBC1.

Updated: 11:43 Friday, November 28, 2003