Tommy Steele is stepping into the big band shoes of Glenn Miller

Tommy Steele tells Ed Power about playing the big band legend, and how he was nearly typecast as a leprechaun

BEFORE he was Britain’s answer to Elvis Presley, Tommy Steele was a wide-eyed boy sitting between his parents in the cheap seats at the Royal Albert Hall.

“My mum and dad took me to see Glenn Miller in 1944,” recalls the song-and-dance veteran. “I didn’t appreciate what I was seeing. I was just a lad. All I knew was that I was going with my parents and I was delighted. Everyone was enthralled by Miller. They couldn’t get enough of him. The Germans had been giving us a bit of whacking by that point. It was nice to see something you could go and cheer at.”