I SHALL try to persuade my wife Maria into giving me a burst of the nifty footwork involved in Singing In The Rain tomorrow, without the special effects.

They’re hardly needed, considering the weather we’ve been having.

The reason is that it will be National Tap Dance Day. Huddersfield’s own Roy Castle (inset) was a great exponent of the art, of course, and still holds the world record of the fastest tap dance, 1,440 taps per minute – or 24 taps per second – that he set on January 14, 1973.

Maria may not be in the same class but she did get her bronze medal when she was 13.

“I think they gave it me out of sympathy,” she says.

Needless to say, she did not pursue it as a full time career, becoming instead secretary to an accountant, but on occasions she did startle the kids when they were growing up by going into an impromptu shuffle-ball-step in the kitchen. I wonder if she can still cut the mustard?

I suppose it’s natural that I was attracted to Maria all those years ago because I used to be a tap-dancer myself, but I had to give it up. I kept falling in the sink.