The news that one of Britain's best-loved music institutions will be axed has brought memories flooding back for an Oxfordshire glam rock girl.

Generations have grown up watching BBC's Top of the Pops since it was first aired in 1964.

But, prompted by falling audiences, the BBC has axed the show with the last broadcast set to go out on July 30.

It will end a 42-year tradition of families gathering around the TV on a Thursday night kids appealing for quiet, mum inquiring 'is that a boy or a girl?' and dad lamenting the death of melody from behind the paper.

But for Didcot's Jeanette Howse the hit show was part of her weekly routine for over a decade.

Mrs Howse, who now works at Didcot Railway Centre, was 17 when she joined the BBC as a production administrator in 1971.

For the next 10 years she spent Wednesday nights rubbing shoulders with the stars as part of the TOTP audience and even signing household names into the BBC staff bar.

Mrs Howse said: "I think it was 220 people that could go into the studio and if they were short they would let staff in.

"I was going to TOTP nearly every week. I met all the glam rock people, The Sweet, T-Rex, Wizzard, Mud and Elton John."

"I used to wear a hat and I would collect badges from the bands and put them on it. Noel Edmunds was once filmed wearing that hat."

The only time Mrs Howse had a problem getting in was when heart throb David Cassidy appeared on the show but that soon resolved itself.

"So many people fainted that in the end they waved us in," said Mrs Howse.

She added: "I didn't think about it at the time. I was seeing well-known people all the time at the BBC so to me it wasn't a big deal."

Even though it was part of her life for a decade, Mrs Howse said the BBC were right to call time on the show.

She said: "I did think it was a shame but I realise things change. I feel they think they have to move on."