As a teenager, Alan was the first to admit he didn’t know anything about girls. In 1974 he went to sixth form in his home town of Chingford. When he arrived at his history class, the teacher sat him next to twin girls. Although they’d been at the same school for years, it was very big and they hadn’t met before. “One of them was Janet,” he says. “She turned around and gave me a great big smile and I was smitten straight away.”
Although Janet thought him “very interesting and knowledgeable”, she also found him irritating because “he butted in all the time”. They got to know each other better when they starred in a performance of The Mikado together. “I was playing Yum-Yum and Alan was playing Ko-Ko,” says Janet. “He was talented and he had a beautiful voice. He was also very friendly and kind to other people doing the show.”
