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Top of the Pops Annual 1979

Legs & Co

The first three Top of the Pops annuals had included quite lengthy features on Pan’s People. Readers of the 1977 and 1978 annuals were out of luck however, having to make do with just one photo of the show’s resident dance act. This was not too unexpected given the uncertainty created by the Pan’s People/Ruby Flipper/Legs & Co changeovers. Because the annuals had to be prepared well in advance of their autumn release date, it appears the publishers did not want to risk featuring a dance act that might already have left the show when the annual hit the shops. The following article is from the ‘Top of the Pops Annual 1979’ edited by Ken Irwin and published by World Distributors.

Legs & Co

One of the main attractions about the TV show (ask any of the dads who watch regularly!) is the sexy dance routines of that shapely team of dancers, Legs & Co.

They came together as a dance group late in 1976, and were formed specially for Top of the Pops. Before that we’d had the lovely Pan’s People girls dancing for several years, and then, for a brief period, the mixed group of dancers called Ruby Flipper.

But Legs & Co proved an immediate hit with the TV audiences at home. “Most viewers made it pretty clear to us that they preferred an all-girl dancing team to a mixed group,” says producer Robin Nash.

Legs & Co

Left to Right : Patti Hammond, Lulu Cartwright, Rosemary Hetherington, Gill Clark, Pauline Peters

This is the line-up of girls: Patti Hammond, who is twenty-eight and married, started out as a classical dancer, and appeared with the Royal and Festival ballet companies.

Gillian Clark, nineteen, measures a shapely 35-21-35.

Rosemary Hetherington and Lulu Cartwright, both eighteen, are the ‘babies’ of the troupe. They joined Legs & Co straight from school.

Susan Menhenick, twenty-three, measures 34-24-34 and is the only girl who previous danced with Pan’s People.

Pauline Peters, twenty-six, used to work in an office, and took dance lessons at night school, before stepping out to become a full-time dancer.

I’m sure all the kiddies eagerly unwrapping their Top of the Pops Annual on Christmas Day were just thrilled to learn that Gill’s vital statistics were a ‘shapely’ 35-21-35 and Sue measured 34-24-34. Whatever would we have done without the Top of the Pops Annual?

Fortunately, there was a much bigger Legs & Co feature in Top of the Pops Annual 1980.