Nick Berry - Every Loser Wins: EastEnders Stars In The Pop Charts 2

Here's Nick Berry, EastEnders Simon Wicks (or "Wicksy"), all togged up in his 1980s gear with a very classy motor.

Simon was, apparently, the son of Pete Beale (Peter Dean) and dad doted on son, until Simon's mother, wicked witch Pat (Pam St Clement), turned up in 1986. She couldn't resist spilling the beans to Simon's proud dad that he wasn't Simon's dad at all. The storyline puzzled me as I always thought that Nick Berry bore something of a resemblance to Peter Dean, and assumed that was partly the reason he'd been chosen for the role.

Simon worked in the Vic, yuppie pub the Dagmar, played the piano, and had a very busy (and, of course, fraught) love life.

Actor Nick Berry became a TV heart-throb overnight. This was one lucky man: he'd been involved in a car crash a few years before EastEnders and, not wearing a seat belt, had been thrown through the windscreen.

Despite suffering a fractured skull, he made a complete recovery.

Here's Nick, complete with designer stubble, on the cover of that record. Every Loser Wins was number one in the pop charts on the day I got the key to the door - my 21st birthday. Actually, I'd had my own key to my own door for several years, but 21 was still special. And this was number one.

I'm very fond of much that went to make up the 1980s, although sometimes I wonder why... Karma Chameleon was at number one on my 18th birthday, and this on my 21st. There were times when the decade was just too, too cruel!

Speaking of Every Loser Wins, Nick Berry was good enough to admit later: "My singing on it was awful."

Oddly enough, back in 1986, I recall actually liking the song.

But I would never admit that to anybody who knows me. Not that I'm a snob, of course.

Perish the thought!