The illustrated Friends: Michael Miles

Let's get back to the people Adam Ant claims to be Friends of his. If you're just joining us, this is what it's all about.

Next up is Michael Miles. Given the song was released in 1979, a year after Halloween came out, casual listeners might have assumed that the guest list had found space for this chap:

But, in fact, Adam was chumming up to Michael Miles, former host of Take Your Pick. By the time of the song, Miles was already starting to drift away from the public consciousness - Take Your Pick was as far in the past from Friends as Going For Gold was in the future. But the format - and, in particular, the Yes/No interlude - never quite vanishes.

Miles had a crappy hand dealt him: Take Your Pick was dropped because the company that made it lost its ITV franchise; he suffered from epilepsy and, ashamed of his condition, would lock himself in his dressing room. That, though, just created rumours that he was an alcoholic. He died in 1971.

But can we find a tenuous bit of music? We had Mr Pastry dancing; we had an Adam Ant song directly inspired by Allen Jones. Surely there must be something?

Well... kind of. Take Your Pick was revived twice - once for a full series, hosted by Des O'Connor...

... and once, as a one-off as part of ITV's Gameshow Marathon. Hosted by Ant and Dec. Let's prove there is a downward spiral from Des, shall we?


[Buy: Des O'Connor - Inspired
PJ And Duncan - aka Psyche]
[Part of the illustrated Friends]