An attempted spin-off, a cash-in atrocity if ever there was one, but somehow the blind (or rather deaf) faith displayed by the pair in the fetchingly awful nature of the offering enables a transcending of the taste barrier and the striking of a nerve, not to mention funny bone, in all who hear it.

Radio DJ Kenny Everett gave the thing a dusting off in his World's Worst Record show (Honor: “Best place for it”) gallery of grotesques a few years ago and now, anxious to adjust their reputation from Wimp to High Kicking, Cherry Red have repackaged the whole thing. Once again the record buyer is threatened.

“Surprise would be the polite word, shock would be more apt," comments the female half of the irresponsible duo on this skeleton suddenly wrenched from her past.

“It was so long ago I don't remember it that well (what's that psychology thing about repression of traumatic memories?) and it was an image which had long gone but the record got into some chart or other all by itself so my agent suggested that I did something to promote it.”

And here we are. The setting is a record plugger's less than modest dwelling in a leafy Ealing crescent and Ms Blackman, despite her 58 years (apparently) is still able to induce, to use a cricketing term, a tickle down the leg side in the average male.

“I was the Queen Of The Boots in those days and somebody decided to write a number that would befit me and Patrick. Literally, we hustled off one Saturday evening and did it. Patrick said he had no sense of rhythm and couldn't sing but we thought that was absolute nonsense until we actually got there and found it was absolutely true!

"We had to hit him on the shoulder every time it was his turn to sing. He really hated it and I wasn't exactly Top Of The Pops either but it was just a gag at the time. I'd long since forgotten about it.

“I guess it ties in with that sort of 1960s cult thing. There are all kinds of cults from the 1950s and 1960s, James Dean cults, Marilyn Monroe cults and I find it astonishing that the children of today, who weren't even around then, are taking these things up.

“I imagine people failing about laughing at 'Kinky Boots' although my daughter tells me they're not and that people are actually singing it, which makes me very curious. I have no explanation for it.”

The Avengers itself has always had a strong cult following.

“Yes, although they've never seen me which is strange. All my episodes were done on video tape and I left before they went onto film. They've never seen my Avengers which were the real black leather and the real fighting ones. I don't know if the tapes are still around... my God, that would be the end wouldn't it, if they suddenly, started showing them!"

How pre-planned was the Queen Of The Boots image?

“It was an accident. When I started doing the Avengers and the judo I was just wearing ordinary clothes, obviously I wore trousers to do the fighting. I was doing some wild and extraordinary throw with my backside to the camera and I split my pants from top to toe, in close up.

“They said (adopts TV producer voice) 'this can't happen again' so we had to find a tougher material. I think it was Patrick who suggested using leather. There's not much that can go on the end of a leather suit except boots. So I wore boots – it's good to have something solid on your feet anyway when you're doing judo, for balance.

“This was in March and the screenings were going to be in September. The Paris fashions, which we used to pay more attention to then, came out at the start of September and they had leather! It was extraordinary.

“When the series went out all these fashions were flooding in from Paris and I was probably the only person in Britain walking about without leather because I daren't go out in it.

“I love leather but I've never worn it since because of the image and at the time all sorts of people wanted to call me out for a fight. It was very strange. A lot of males, especially when they were drunk, would want to have a fight because they resented the fact that a female was the male equivalent intellectually and physically.

"Lots of people would get stroppy at parties; those who weren't secure in their balls would suggest they could take me outside and finish me off. This was always when they were in no condition to finish anybody off.”

So did the Cathy Gale character affect attitudes towards women?

"I think it helped, it broke down a few barriers. I mean, it must have some effect when it goes into millions of homes every week. Since then there's been a lot of series from America where girls are always drawing guns and bashing people about."

Back on the subject of 'Kinky Boots' Honor, with barely a trace of sarcasm. adds: “I don't look back on it as my best work or anything. It was just a lark and that is the spirit in which it should be accepted.”

"And that (she adopts the tone of a Drunk and Disorderly defendant before the bench) really is all I can remember, m’lord.”

Guilty as charged. I think.