Chart Toppers
He’s enjoyed an illustrious singing career, but it took a duet with national hero Sir Captain Tom Moore to score Michael his first ever Number One hit record.
“I bloomin’ owe him, I really do!” he laughs. “I never thought I’d get a Number One. It’s one of the proudest moments of my career.”
The singer, who reached Number Two in the charts in 1989 with Love Changes Everything, memorably teamed up with Captain Tom and the NHS Voices of Care choir last year, for a fund-raising cover version of You’ll Never Walk Alone.
“I heard his story and it struck a nerve and we got him on my radio show,” Michael explains. “The response from the listeners was instant.”
Their charity release was the fastest-selling single of last year and made Captain Tom the oldest artist ever to claim the No 1 spot.
“I met him a few times and it was an amazing experience, a real privilege,” Michael smiles. “He was magnificent. He was kind, funny and wise and so humble.”
Iwas born in February 1927 so by the time the 1930s star ted I was nearly three and I remember it well,” June jokes. “I don’t think you ever really remember much about the first two or three years of your life – just odd bits here and there. It mostly begins when you go to school, and I do remember that because in 1930 when I was three, me and my older sister, Marise, were sent to a kind of nurser y school in Ipswich. It was my father’s idea. He was from Devon while my mother was from Mile End in the East End of Londoner so I knew a fair bit about that par t of London before I ever went into EastEnders.
“At the pre-school as they call it now I remember being shown how to use an abacus by Miss Tracy who ran the place. We only lasted a term there, though, because my father wasn’t satisfied.
“The atmosphere at home was good but I remember hearing grown-ups conversations turning to the threat of war as the 30s wore on. It didn’t affect us kids so much at that time, we just got on with things. I went to St John’s Church of England School and then Ipswich High School.
“A lot of people talk about the bad times of the 1930s but we had music and films and lots of other things going on so it wasn’t all miserable.
“One thing the war did do for me was that when it all star ted I was evacuated to a place in Wales called
Por tyates. That was really different and I didn’t like being away from home, but we were encouraged to have fun and games. Later I joined the Wrens before the end of the war and I also had one of my dreams come true when I went to the Old Vic Theatre School.
“A par t of me had always wanted to be an actress, because I was an avid reader but mostly because of what I had seen in the theatre and at the pictures, it all seemed ver y romantic and a completely different way of life. I couldn’t resist it.”
It was the star t of Dot Cotton and for June the 1930s provided a great launching pad.