Oh, it's been such a long, long time

As London and much of the UK is braced for what might well turn out to be the hottest day on record, so our thoughts [as ever on such occasions when we actually get a summer, and then the tabloids and other assorted doom-mongers start talking about "an apocalypse"] turn to that every-fondly-remembered Long Hot Summer of 1976...

...the year of Punk, Disco, the Raleigh Chopper bike, I, Claudius, the first Space Shuttle, Dancing Queen, Pol Pot, the Cod War, photos from Mars, Jimmy Carter, Brotherhood of Man, Nadia Comaneci, Entebbe, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, John Curry, Jim Callaghan, The Muppet Show, Patty Hearst, Emperor Bokassa, 10CC, Concorde, The Wurzels, Peter Frampton, The New Avengers, The Omen, James Hunt, the IRA and the US bicentennial; the births of Benedict Cumberbatch, Emma Bunton, "H" from Steps, Ryan Reynolds, Apple, Colin Farrell, Ellen MacArthur, The Body Shop, Stephen Gately, the National Theatre, Anna Friel, the CN Tower, Keeley Hawes, Cillian Murphy, Reese Witherspoon, Sean Maguire, Martine McCutcheon, Rob James-Collier, the InterCity 125, the Ford Fiesta and the Seychelles; and the year Rosalind Russell, Sal Mineo, Sir Benjamin Britten, Dame Edith Evans, Busby Berkeley, Dame Agatha Christie, Sid James, Fritz Lang, Dame Sybil Thorndike, Florence Ballard, Margaret Leighton, Howard Hughes, Ulrike Meinhof, Alastair Sim, Paul Robeson, Luchino Visconti, Sir Stanley Baker, Chairman Mao, L. S. Lowry and Field Marshal Montgomery all died.

In the headlines in July 46 years ago? Obviously that year's heatwave (which peaked at 35.9C/96.6F, but went on for months), the Montreal Olympics (and the impressive groinage of champion swimmer David Wilkie), the election of David Steel as leader of the Liberal Party in the wake of the Jeremy Thorpe scandal, the execution of British mercenaries in Angola, the murder by the IRA of the UK amabassador to Ireland, and a fire that destroyed the pierhead of Southend Pier. In our cinemas: The Outlaw Josey Wales; Bugsy Malone; Aces High. On telly: The Bionic Woman, Starsky and Hutch and Mike Yarwood in Persons.

And what of our charts this week in that long, glorious summer? The song that came to dominate the heatwave, Elton John and Kiki Dee's Don't Go Breaking My Heart had just toppled Demis Roussos from the top slot (and would remain there for six weeks while we sweltered). Also present and correct in the Top Ten were Doctor Hook, Candi Staton, The Manhattans, The Real Thing, Queen, 100 Tons and a Feather (aka Jonathan King) and Bryan Ferry - and this slice of soul perfection!

Dorothy Moore - Misty Blue

Scary though it is to note, the heatwave of 1976 is closer in time to the rise of Oswald Mosley and the opening of BBC Broadcasting House than it is to us today...

Aaargh!