For the punk movement, Teddington became known through the notorious interview between longtime show host Bill Grundy and the Sex Pistols. This interview on Today was an explosive introduction to punk rock for many families in Britain, as the uncensored antics of the interview were broadcasted live on December 1^st, 1976. The Sex Pistols came onto the show as a replacement for Queen, who had to cancel on very short notice. There were tensions from the start of the interview, exacerbated by the fact that the Sex Pistols showed up to the studio very drunk. The show also lacked tape delay technology, and thus the profanity and aggressive banter between Steve Jones and Grundy was shown completely uncensored on dinnertime television.

The reaction to The Sex Pistols' interview with Grundy varied depending on audience demographics, the most prominent of which was age. The older, more conservative generations were shocked and appalled at the punks who had made a mockery of a once-beloved TV show host. However, the younger audiences were quite interested in what the Sex Pistols had to offer. Punk provided an outlet for the growing frustrations of London's youth with class systems and hierarchies, failures of the government, the crumbling economy, and other pressing issues at the time. Suddenly, a fringe music scene that was barely known outside of a few small circles gained widespread popularity in England almost overnight. It also had the effect of completely ruining Bill Grundy's career in television. England's Today show was cancelled shortly after December 1^st, and although he only received a temporary suspension from Thames Television, Grundy's reputation would never recover from the humiliation and unprofessionalism that occurred during the interview. Through incidents like this interview, punk rock challenged the status quo and established institutions in a simple, yet effective way. The Sex Pistols were perhaps on the angrier side of punk, but they nonetheless represented many of punk's basic elements and introduced an entire generation of youth to the movement. Punk gave a sense of power to the powerless, and created a new, powerful subculture unique to the time period.