Flash, Bang, Wallop! It’s Sir Tommy

VETERAN entertainer Tommy Steele discovered an unexpected new fan yesterday – Princess Anne.

The Princess royal told him she ‘knew all about’ his career as she knighted him at Windsor Castle. Sir Tommy, 84, pictured with his honour, said it was the ‘highlight of the highlights’ of his 65 years in showbusiness. In the 1950s, he was considered Britain’s first rock’n’roll star and teen pop idol, with hits including Singing The Blues earning comparisons to Elvis Presley.

He went on to star in films including the 1967 musical Half A Sixpence, in which – as well as the title track – he sang Flash, Bang, Wallop!

Sir Tommy, born Thomas Hicks in Bermondsey, southeast London, in December 1936, was honoured for services to entertainment and to charity.

He said Princess Anne spoke to him about his career ‘and she knew all about it’, adding: ‘It has been like a very important first night in the theatre.

‘It is like you are blessed by something that has been happening for centuries and then all of a sudden, you find that as an actor you have got the part.’