In the school holidays the BBC would palm you off with cheap and cheerless TV fayre, mostly ancient black and white serials like Champion the Wonder Horse and toe-curling what-adults-think-kids-should-watch dramas made by a sinister organisation called the Children’s Film Foundation.


Popular on LondonNet


Then one year, some unknown saviour at Broadcasting House slipped The Monkees TV show into the schedule.

It’s hard to exaggerate the relief enjoyed by millions of 70s children when that first A-minor chord struck and Davy Jones let out the slow, slightly threatening line “Here We Come…”

Jones offered path-to-the-stars hope to a generation of British kids, who saw his artful dodger spiel strike it rich and win the attention of glamorous American chicks. He done good and he was almost one of us! Or, as Monkees bandmate Micky Dolenz put it last night: “He was like my brother”. Thanks for the songs and the smiles, little brother.