Legs & Co.

Legs & Co. were the dance troupe on the BBC's Top Of The Pops between 1976 and 1981.

The all-girl dance troupe replaced Ruby Flipper, the multi-racial and mixed-sex group of dancers who had replaced Pan's People in May 1976. Legs & Co were put together and managed by choreographer and founding member of Pan's People, Flick Colby, and by fellow Pan's People dancer Ruth Pearson.

The original Legs & Co. dancers were:

Menhenick (who replaced Louise Clarke as a member of Pan's People in 1974), Hammond and Cartwright had been members of Ruby Flipper, and it was decided that they should remain as part of the new line-up. Three further dancers were chosen to complete the sextet: Gill Clark,who had been a finalist in the Miss UK 1976 contest, Rosemary Hetherington, a student at the Italia Conti stage school, and Pauline Peters, who had appeared on stage in various West End productions.

The original Legs & Co. line-up stayed together longer than any of the various Pan's People line-ups, from October 1976 to March 1981. During their time on the show, only one personnel change occurred within the troupe; when Pauline Peters left the group on 19 March 1981, she was eventually replaced on 28 May 1981 by singer and dancer Anita Chellamah.

Author Patience Bradley (formerly Patti Lawrence) states to many media sources that she was a member of Legs & Co. at a point in their Top Of The Pops tenure. This is not true. Patience has never had any association with the dance troupe at any point (including post TOTP) which is confirmed by Legs & Co. member Sue Menhenick on the One For The Dads forum. She is not to be confused with genuine Legs & Co. member Patti Hammond.

By the time of the new troupe's first appearance on Top of the Pops on 21 October 1976, dancing to the Average White Band's "Queen of My Soul", they had not come up with a name for themselves. For their first appearances, they were introduced as the "Top of the Pops" dancers, while their name was listed as "??????" on the end credits of three editions. The BBC decided to allow viewers to select a name for the new dance troupe via a competition promoted on Top of the Pops by Ed Stewart, after the girls made their dancing debut, and on the BBC children's programme Blue Peter. The name "Legs & Co." was chosen as the successful name. This was announced on the Top of the Pops of 4 November 1976, with the competition winner in attendance, Elaine Coombes.

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