The Spice Girls have hit the coveted Christmas number one spot for the second year running - beating off competition from the Teletubbies and the tribute single to the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

The girls' single 'Too Much' knocked the Teletubbies 'Say Eh-Oh!' off the top spot in the week of the year that record sales traditionally double.

The other favourite in the race for the Christmas number one, The Chicken Shed Theatre Company's tribute single 'I'm In Love With the World', could manage only 15th position.

Critics silenced

The Spices also topped last year's seasonal chart with 'Two Become One'. Their latest hit gives a timely boost to the girls' first movie, 'Spiceworld', which premiered in London last week and opens to the public on Boxing Day.

Radio One DJ Mark Goodier, who announced the Christmas Top 40, said the group had silenced critics who have been saying the girls' popularity was on the slide.

"The Spice Girls are incredibly popular and the cynicism of the media has not dented that. Their second album has sold eight million copies in a few weeks," he said. "It's been their year so its only right that they should be the Christmas number one."

But he believed that in clinching the top spot, the Spices had not only counted on their popularity as a group and the quality of their song but they also timed their single's release perfectly so that the Teletubbies' sales had already peaked when 'Too Much' hit the racks.

Knock-on at the bookies

This late surge also had a knock-on effect at the bookmakers where there was a last-minute flurry of big bets on the girls.

The final William Hill odds for the Christmas number one were: Spice Girls 4/7 favourites and Teletubbies 5/4. Ladbrokes quoted 2/5 Spice Girls, 2/1 Teletubbies and 4/1 Chicken Shed.

A William Hill spokesman estimated that the Spice Girls' number one will cost them £100,000. But he added: "The band are 10-1 favourites for next year. We think their bubble will have burst by then."
 

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