It's a Northern thing

Earl Van Dyke was at the very heart of Motown: the Detroit born keyboard player and bandleader was the founder of The Funk Brothers - the label's house band; without them there wouldn't have been a Motown. It's as simple as that. Anyone who's seen Standing in the Shadows of Motown will, I'm sure, concur.

From time to time Van Dyke would slip anchor - they'd allow him to open for the names over the door. That's when he'd get to play tunes like this: it's a sure fire floor-filler that goes by the name of 6 X 6.

Still with us - just*

Mention the name Dick Van Dyke in conversation and the chances are you'll be on the receiving end of a 'Cor blimey, Mary Poppins' - mocking his woeful Cockney accent from the 1964 Disney staple. But Van Dyke was better than that. Four years later he was the eccentric inventor Caractacus Potts in the enchanting screen adaptation of Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. A film in which, strangely, Lionel Jeffries, born the year after Van Dyke, played his father. The movie spawned many musical hits including the title song and this, the truly scrumptious Hushabye Mountain.



In the 1960s Van Dyke cleaned up on American TV with the Dick Van Dyke Show and later in the 1970s with, that's right, The New Dick Van Dyke Show. The programme(s) won more Emmys than was decent and in 2002 was voted # 13 in The Top 50 TV Shows of All Time. In the 1990s he returned to the small screen as Dr. Mark Sloan in Diagnosis Murder. Van Dyke played a Consultant come sleuth at Community General Hospital where week after week somebody would meet a sticky end; despite the high death toll the writers would always shoehorn a song and dance routine into the show, thus reaffirming its cosy crime status.

Recently married to a woman forty six years his junior, Van Dyke refuses to retire - he continues to sing with his own a cappella group The Vantastix and is still a regular on the US chat show circuit.

* Van Dyke, now 88, has over the years battled with alcohol addiction and an undisclosed neurological condition but, in August last year, found himself in what could easily have been an episode from Diagnosis Murder: his car burst into flames by the side of a Los Angeles freeway. In true Hollywood style the whole drama was filmed by an onlooker.

Roustabout

'Where's our change?'

Everybody knows that David Essex was born in a gypsy caravan on a Fairground within earshot of Bow Bells. It's also a well known fact that Ringo Starr taught him how to fleece the punters on the Dodgems and that when his time comes it will probably be some freak accident on a Ferris Wheel or the Waltzers. Either that or he'll choke to death on his candy floss.

Listen out for how Essex pronounces Roller Coaster. You'd swear it was John Lydon.

Room for Two

Not since Roy Plomley (right) cast Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais adrift in 1979 have two new residents washed up ashore together on the BBC's Desert Island.

It was only to be expected that Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelley would be a twofer when Kirsty Young chucked her next victims overboard. I like Ant and Dec. What's not to like? A few years ago they were asked to make a tribute to The Likely Lads; it was written by Clement and La Frenais and I thought they made a decent fist of it. And Rodney Bewes makes a cameo appearance as the newspaper vendor.

Prop

Dylan's Fender he played at Newport Folk Festival 1965

Bob Dylan has clocked up over 2500 gigs on his Never Ending Tour; a tour that began way back in 1988 and has since straddled the globe many times over. And for over 90 percent of those dates, night after night, he's been centre stage with a guitar strapped over his shoulder. He didn't always play it - for the most part it was just a prop. A symbol that became synonymous with seeing Dylan live. It was his sheriff's badge. All great entertainers have used props: Tommy Cooper had a fez, Eric had Ernie, Rod Stewart's got a mic stand, Mick has Keith - you get the picture.

So, these days, when Dylan hides at the side of the stage behind a piano you sort of feel short changed. It doesn't look right. That he continually rearranges his songs is a given; singing along with Dylan will never become an Olympic event. But seeing him without a guitar just isn't right. The one time song and dance man isn't dancing anymore.