During my brief and soon abandoned sojourn at Birmingham University in 1965, the TV room of the Students Union was always packed out on a Thursday evening. Top of the Pops at 7:30, The Man From U.N.C.L.E at 8:00. The male students wanted to be Napoleon Solo, the female students wanted to get close to Ilya Kuryakin.
And the relevance of this – well for much of that autumn term, Ken Dodd was the closing act on Top of the Pops, his recording of ‘Tears’ at number one. By the end of November, every mother and grandmother in the country must have had a copy of the single, which reportedly sold over a million records. He really did have a great singing voice to go along with his mastery of comedy.