# The Official Chart

The Official Chart is a long-running United Kingdom music chart programme, airing each Friday afternoon on BBC Radio 1. It airs the UK Singles Chart compiled by the Official Charts Company.
In July 2015 The Official Chart moved from its traditional Sunday slot to Friday afternoons, to coincide with the global change in new music release dates from Sundays to Fridays. The chart airs between 16:00 and 17:45.

## History

Pick of the Pops, as the chart was originally known, transferred to Radio One from the BBC Light Programme in October 1967, along with host Alan Freeman. Tom Browne took over in 1972 with Solid Gold Sixty. This consisted of two hours featuring Radio One playlist tracks which were not in the Top 20 (broadcast on 247 metres Medium Wave and carried on VHF by some location BBC radio stations), followed by a one-hour Top 20 rundown from 6pm - 7pm (carried also on BBC Radio 2's FM transmitters). Starting from March 1974, the playlist tracks were incorporated into Paul Burnett's 'All There Is To Hear', and the Tom Browne show was reduced to just the Top 20 for one hour at 18:00.
In April 1978, Simon Bates took over as presenter. From May 1978, Radio One started promoting the Top 40 instead of the Top 30 in its Tuesday chart countdowns and daytime programming. This was because the Top 50 was increased to the BBC Top 75 that month.
From November 1978 the Sunday chart show was extended to a two-hour countdown of the entire top 40. At first, every record was played, but as there was insufficient time to play the whole of each record, during the 1980s some songs dropping in the chart were excluded. Tony Blackburn, who had been removed from weekday programming, hosted the show from 1979 to 1982.
From 6 January 1991, every song in the top 40 was played and in March 1992 the programme was extended to three hours to allow for each song again to be played in full. The programme now ran from 4pm until 7pm. Since then the show has had a variety of different names and presenters in guest and permanent roles.
The programme has run consistently every week, with the exceptions of 31 August 1997, 9 April 2021, and 9 September 2022 when it was cancelled as Radio 1 suspended programming due to the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and Queen Elizabeth II respectively. The show was also sometimes shortened during coverage of BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend. Due to coverage of Gregathlon for Sport Relief 2016, the show on 12 February 2016 was presented by Scott Mills at the earlier time of 2 to 4pm.
In recent years the show has reflected changes in the music industry. In 2005 downloads began to be included as part of the top 40, and from July 2014 the show has also included audio streaming alongside physical sales.
Between February 2012 and August 2014 the show also streamed visually with music videos of the top 10 singles aired simultaneously on the Radio 1 website.
On 24 March 2015, it was announced that in July 2015 the show would be moving from a standalone show in its traditional Sunday night slot to a new position on Friday afternoons as part of Greg James' afternoon show. The move was due to an international agreement by the music industry to release all new albums and singles on Fridays. The new chart played the top 25 in full rather than the top 40 that had previously been broadcast. The change in presenter meant that Clara Amfo became the shortest-serving permanent host of the show. The Sunday night slot was replaced with a new show hosted by Cel Spellman and Katie Thistleton.
Since 17 February 2017, only the new entries and highest climbers from the top 40 are played with the top 10 played in full after 5 o’clock.

## Presenters

The names in italics indicates a co-host for the show.
| From | To | Duration | Presenter(s) | Presenter(s) | Format |
| From | To | Duration | Main | Cover(s) | Format |
| 1 October 1967 | 24 September 1972 | 4 years, 359 days | Alan Freeman | Unknown | Known as Pick of the Pops and featured new entries between numbers 21 and 30 and the complete Top 20. |
| 1 October 1972 | 17 March 1974 | 5 years, 176 days | Tom Browne | Johnnie Walker | A three-hour show called Solid Gold Sixty featuring new releases, climbers and chart entries below the Top 20 from 16:00–18:00, followed by the Top 20 itself from 18:00–19:00. |
| 24 March 1974 | 26 March 1978 | 5 years, 176 days | Tom Browne | Paul Burnett Simon Bates | Reduced to just the Top 20, running from 18:00–19:00. |
| 2 April 1978 | 5 November 1978 | 1 year, 146 days | Simon Bates | None | Reduced to just the Top 20, running from 18:00–19:00. |
| 12 November 1978 | 26 August 1979 | 1 year, 146 days | Simon Bates | Andy Peebles | Extended to a two-hour Top 40 from 17:00–19:00. |
| 2 September 1979 | 3 January 1982 | 2 years, 123 days | Tony Blackburn | None | Extended to a two-hour Top 40 from 17:00–19:00. |
| 10 January 1982 | 1 January 1984 | 1 year, 356 days | Tommy Vance | Simon Bates Andy Peebles | Extended to a two-hour Top 40 from 17:00–19:00. |
| 8 January 1984 | 23 September 1984 | 259 days | Simon Bates | Richard Skinner | Extended to a two-hour Top 40 from 17:00–19:00. |
| 30 September 1984 | 23 March 1986 | 1 year, 174 days | Richard Skinner | Tommy Vance Simon Bates Bruno Brookes | Extended to a two-hour Top 40 from 17:00–19:00. |
| 30 March 1986 | 23 September 1990 | 4 years, 177 days | Bruno Brookes | Tommy Vance Simon Bates Gary Davies Mark Goodier | Extended to a two-hour Top 40 from 17:00–19:00. |
| 30 September 1990 | 30 December 1990 | 1 year, 153 days | Mark Goodier | none | Extended to a two-hour Top 40 from 17:00–19:00. |
| 6 January 1991 | 1 March 1992 | 1 year, 153 days | Mark Goodier | Tommy Vance | Extended to a two-and-a-half-hour Top 40 from 16:30–19:00. |
| 8 March 1992 | 8 March 1992 | N/A | None | Tommy Vance | Extended to a two-and-a-half-hour Top 40 from 16:30–19:00. |
| 15 March 1992 | 16 April 1995 | 3 years, 32 days | Bruno Brookes | Simon Bates Mark Goodier Neale James | Extended to a three-hour Top 40 from 16:00–19:00. Digital downloads were included in the chart from 17 April 2005. |
| 23 April 1995 | 17 November 2002 | 7 years, 208 days | Mark Goodier | Dave Pearce Clive Warren Judge Jules Scott Mills | Extended to a three-hour Top 40 from 16:00–19:00. Digital downloads were included in the chart from 17 April 2005. |
| 24 November 2002 | 2 February 2003 | 70 days | None | Various | Extended to a three-hour Top 40 from 16:00–19:00. Digital downloads were included in the chart from 17 April 2005. |
| 9 February 2003 | 30 January 2005 | 1 year, 356 days | Wes Butters | Scott Mills | Extended to a three-hour Top 40 from 16:00–19:00. Digital downloads were included in the chart from 17 April 2005. |
| 6 February 2005 | 27 February 2005 | 21 days | None | Various | Extended to a three-hour Top 40 from 16:00–19:00. Digital downloads were included in the chart from 17 April 2005. |
| 6 March 2005 | 30 September 2007 | 2 years, 208 days | JK and Joel | Scott Mills | Extended to a three-hour Top 40 from 16:00–19:00. Digital downloads were included in the chart from 17 April 2005. |
| 7 October 2007 | 7 October 2007 | N/A | None | Scott Mills | Extended to a three-hour Top 40 from 16:00–19:00. Digital downloads were included in the chart from 17 April 2005. |
| 14 October 2007 | 20 September 2009 | 1 year, 341 days | Fearne Cotton Reggie Yates | Scott Mills | Extended to a three-hour Top 40 from 16:00–19:00. Digital downloads were included in the chart from 17 April 2005. |
| 27 September 2009 | 23 December 2012 | 3 years, 87 days | Reggie Yates | Scott Mills Greg James Dev Huw Stephens | Extended to a three-hour Top 40 from 16:00–19:00. Digital downloads were included in the chart from 17 April 2005. |
| 30 December 2012 | 6 January 2013 | 7 days | None | Scott Mills | A new background theme was introduced in February 2012. Music videos for the top 10 songs were streamed online from 26 February 2012 to 31 August 2014. |
| 13 January 2013 | 8 December 2013 | 2 years, 5 days | Jameela Jamil | Scott Mills | A new background theme was introduced in February 2012. Music videos for the top 10 songs were streamed online from 26 February 2012 to 31 August 2014. |
| 15 December 2013 | 22 December 2013 | 2 years, 5 days | Jameela Jamil Jason Derulo (15 December) Scott Mills (22 December) | None | A new background theme was introduced in February 2012. Music videos for the top 10 songs were streamed online from 26 February 2012 to 31 August 2014. |
| 29 December 2013 | 18 January 2015 | 2 years, 5 days | Jameela Jamil | Scott Mills Dev | Audio streaming was included in the chart from 6 July 2014. |
| 25 January 2015 | 5 July 2015 | 161 days | Clara Amfo | Scott Mills Greg James Dev | Audio streaming was included in the chart from 6 July 2014. |
| 10 July 2015 | 20 October 2017 | 2 years, 102 days | Greg James | Dev Scott Mills MistaJam | The chart moved to Friday afternoons airing from 16:00–17:45 (till 18:00 on Bank Holidays). A new background theme was introduced. At the beginning of the period, the top 25 songs were played in full while the songs at 26-40 were mentioned briefly along with a short clip. |
| 27 October 2017 | 8 December 2017 | 42 days | None | MistaJam | The format changed in February 2017 to feature the Top 10 played in full (beginning from 5 pm after Newsbeat) with all new entries & big climbers getting a full play along with a select few other songs whilst the other song were quickly mentioned without a 30-sec clip. The top five albums were also announced. The singles at 10-3 were re-mentioned quickly with a short clip before announcing the top 2 singles. |
| 15 December 2017 | 9 March 2018 | 84 days | Greg James | Scott Mills Jordan North MistaJam | The format changed in February 2017 to feature the Top 10 played in full (beginning from 5 pm after Newsbeat) with all new entries & big climbers getting a full play along with a select few other songs whilst the other song were quickly mentioned without a 30-sec clip. The top five albums were also announced. The singles at 10-3 were re-mentioned quickly with a short clip before announcing the top 2 singles. |
| 16 March 2018 | 20 April 2018 | 35 days | None | MistaJam Scott Mills Jordan North Dev | The Newsbeat at 5pm was cancelled to accommodate more songs to be played in the show. Top 10 starts from 5:05 - 5:45 pm. |
| 27 April 2018 | 18 May 2018 | 21 days | None | MistaJam | The Newsbeat at 5pm was cancelled to accommodate more songs to be played in the show. Top 10 starts from 5:05 - 5:45 pm. |
| 25 May 2018 | 8 June 2018 | 14 days | Greg James | None | The Newsbeat at 5pm was cancelled to accommodate more songs to be played in the show. Top 10 starts from 5:05 - 5:45 pm. |
| 15 June 2018 | 19 August 2022 | 6 years, 263 days | Scott Mills | Jordan North Cel Spellman Katie Thistleton Vick Hope Jack Saunders | The background theme was remastered based on the July 2015 version. Before announcing the top 2 singles, the singles at 20-3 are re-mentioned quickly without a short clip. Video streaming included in the chart from 6 July 2018. A new background theme was introduced in September 2020, which was replaced by another in September 2022 and then another one in January 2024 |
| 26 August 2022 | 2 September 2022 | 8 days | None | James Cusack | The background theme was remastered based on the July 2015 version. Before announcing the top 2 singles, the singles at 20-3 are re-mentioned quickly without a short clip. Video streaming included in the chart from 6 July 2018. A new background theme was introduced in September 2020, which was replaced by another in September 2022 and then another one in January 2024 |
| 16 September 2022 | Present | 2 years, 168 days | Jack Saunders | Jordan North James Cusack Sam & Danni Sian Eleri (co-hosted with Jack at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend 2024 in Luton) | The background theme was remastered based on the July 2015 version. Before announcing the top 2 singles, the singles at 20-3 are re-mentioned quickly without a short clip. Video streaming included in the chart from 6 July 2018. A new background theme was introduced in September 2020, which was replaced by another in September 2022 and then another one in January 2024 |