BONG!

Believe it or not, 1970s ITN newscaster (as they were called then) Reginald (Reggie) Bosanquet once released a disco record called 'Dance With Me'.

For our younger readers, the modern day equivalent would be something like BBC News royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell cutting a grime record about scoring crystal meth and riding around Clapton all night, naked, in the back of a souped-up Vauxhall Nova. Not to be too specific about things.

Reggie was famously a bit of a boozer, with an eye for the ladies. Despite these impressive talents, he couldn't sing. 'Dance With Me' rewards the discerning listener with the strange and possibly terrifying prospect of a posh newsreader shouting incongruous ranty anti-capitalist comment to a tinny disco track. Hard to tell exactly what it's all about, but I suspect it may have been released in the hope that office party organisers of the era might buy it.

Just when you thought things couldn't get any stranger, Reggie tosses in a couple of minutes of ad libs that amount basically to incoherent, slightly threatening chauvinism in 4/4 time.

Remember when the news was the news? None of this 'let's have a conversation we want to hear what you think' namby-pamby bobbins. When newscasters were newscasters, Bosanquet, Kendall, Gall, Parkin and their ilk, that Band of Brothers, simply sat behind a desk, looked you straight in the eye and told you to what degree the world was fucked on any given night. Fantastic. 

The record is awful, but actually sort of becomes brilliant the more you listen to it. Actually if you listen all the way to the end it becomes a bit, well, shit. But it's worth a spin for a minute or two. I'll check with the British Phonographic Industry, but I suspect this is the only record ever released to include the line "God, yes, I really feel rather splendid".

Bless you Reggie. At least you were interesting.