It started with the Rolling Stones, ended with Shakira – and music fans thought that it would never return in the era of YouTube and the MP3 player.

But after heavy lobbying from artists, managers and record companies, Top of the Pops is expected to return to BBC television in the next year amid claims that there is not enough popular music on television.

Music executives are increasingly confident that the BBC is ready to bring back a show that was last broadcast on BBC Two in July 2006, although to win back the viewers it will need to change, with songs being featured before they are released.

Expect a return of miming – which was banned in the chart show’s latter years, upsetting some pop acts – and an end to the “three-minute rule”, which forced rock bands to play edited versions of their hits.

Times Archive, 1972: Top of the Pops

The poker-faced studio audience jerk about in an ungainly fashion, unable even to clap their hands in time to the music

• Top of the Pops 1981

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“There is only one chance for a comeback, and the programme will fail again if it returns exactly as before,” one music industry insider said. “It needs to be more populist and have exclusive content, new songs, that can be put up on YouTube and shared around the internet.”

Top of the Pops was axed after its ratings – which had been 15 million in its 1970s heyday – fell to close to a million.

The revival of the show has been discussed ever since.

Mark Cooper, head of music entertainment for BBC TV, “would personally love to have a weekly music show on the BBC,” he said. “It’s a Sleeping Beauty,” he added. “One day it will come back, in the way that Top Gear and Doctor Who came back.”

In the old days the show was judged a success in ratings terms – but the audience figures today would be unlikely to persuade BBC commissioners to bring it back. Mr Cooper said: “It’s probably no longer the case that Top of the Popscan be revived on the basis of it being an entertainment programme – instead it may have to be judged as a public service.”

A Christmas special remains under consideration – after Simon Cowell ruffled BBC feathers with an offer to take control of the rights to transmit the show for a one-off on ITV. The BBC is not prepared to give up its licence to use the official charts, which includes the right to show a television programme, even though Top of the Pops is not on air.

Lemar, the R&B star, broached the matter with the Prime Minister and the Culture Secretary at a Downing Street breakfast this month. Lemar told The Times: “I spoke to Andy Burnham and I said, ‘We should bring back Top of the Pops’. He replied that he thinks the same. Any aspiring artist wants to be on Top of the Pops.”

Mr Burnham declined to comment yesterday, but last month, while attending a music industry conference, the Culture Secretary said that broad-casters must “promote and champion new music in this country rather than having just safe options on prime-time TV. We should bring back programming that puts before the public a mix of stuff that is new and that mums can talk with kids about – that’s what Top of the Pops did in those days.”

Last month Noel Gallagher, of Oasis, advocated a revival of the chart programme, a show on which he once switched roles with his brother Liam – miming the singer’s words to Roll With It while Liam pretended to play guitar. He argued that the loss of the programme was contributing to social breakdown, saying: “Because people don’t have that shared experience of pop music, and it being their own. So people start getting into weird s***, like knifing each other.”

The loss from the schedules of Jonathan Ross, who is under suspension, has also acted as a reminder of how few slots there are for live pop performances on peak-time, main-stream television. Aside from Ross’s talk show, the only remaining slots are on Strictly Come Dancing, on which Beyoncé performed last week, and The X Factor.

The inclusion of digital downloads has also helped to give the charts more of what the music industry describes as “a narrative”. Three years ago, when only physical sales were counted, singles typically entered at their peak level before tumbling down the charts a week later.

That made it particularly difficult for a show that at its peak stuck to the rule that it would never play a song that was dropping down the hit parade. However, with downloads included, songs are beginning to climb the charts again.

From the Stones to Shakira

First episode January 1, 1964
First act The Rolling Stones, I Wanna Be Your Man
Last song Shakira, Hips Don’t Lie
Best-known theme tune Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin, who never performed on the show
Number of theme tunes 9
Most appearances Cliff Richard, more than 150
Most security guards R. Kelly, 43
Hardy perennial Status Quo, who appeared in every decade
Longest-serving presenter Sir Jimmy Savile, 1964 to 1984, who returned again for the final show
Shortest song Super Furry Animals, Do or Die, 95 seconds
Most people on stage Fat Les, Jerusalem, 75

Magic moments

Teardrop Explodes, 1981
For this infamous performance of Passionate Friend, Julian Cope made his usual effort, dressing up in his leather flying jacket and skin-tight leather trousers, and climbing up on top of the piano to sing. However, having decided to enhance the performance by taking LSD beforehand, he ran into problems: “The piano started melting and I was wading up to my thighs in it by the chorus”

All About Eve, 1988
A band now primarily known for the episode of Top of the Pops where technical problems blighted their performance of Martha’s Harbour, below. Any graph depicting their career would show it peaking at the moment Julianne Regan sat, silent, on a stool, for more than a minute of live television, the kind of performance that Andy Warhol would get very excited about

The Smiths, 1983
Always an event in themselves, the Smiths’ iconic moment came with This Charming Man, where Morrissey used a gigantic bunch of gladioli in such a manner, below, one presumed he was planning to lasso a recaltricant horse. Johnny Marr’s black Levi’s are excitingly tight

Dexy’s Midnight Runners, 1982
Yes, it was intentional. Birmingham’s finest pop-hobos perform Jackie Wilson Says in front of a huge backdrop of the porcine darts-player Jocky Wilson. Ill-informed pub debates still maintain that it was a mistake. Now you know better

Nirvana, 1991
Smells Like Teen Spirit had rung out like a chipped bell, heralding the exciting new era of grunge. The nation’s youth gathered around the television to view the first prime-time appearance by the band of the moment. But Kurt Cobain sang the whole thing in a silly low voice. “I don’t think much of this grunger music,” the nation’s mothers said. “He sounds like a cow”

Manic Street Preachers, 1994
The BBC receives a record number of complaints when the Welsh band performs Faster wearing scary balaclavas and looking like terrorists. The question still remains: art statement or coldsore?

John Peel, 1971
Playing with Rod Stewart and the Faces on Maggie May, Peel mimes along on the mandolin, looking so happy that one suspects the performance is the result of a begging letter to Jim’ll Fix It, containing the word “please” repeated 70 times

John Lennon, 1970
Performing Instant Karma live, Lennon further solidifies his reputation as “the odd Beatle” by having his wife, Yoko Ono, standing next to him wearing a sanitary towel as a blindfold

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