WHEN Hubert Gregg watched the first Doodlebug land on London in 1944, it inspired him to start work on his most famous song.

Hubert, now 85 and living in Eastbourne, penned the lyrics to the classic Maybe It's Because I'm a Londoner - then promptly put them in a drawer and forgot about them for the next two years.

He dug them out again when he heard Bud Flanagan was putting on a revue in London to bring his Crazy Gang back together, thinking the song would be suitable.

The tune has now gone down in history as one of the best-loved of its generation.

And Hubert will help mark another slice of London history after granting permission for Jeffrey Archer to use Maybe It's Because I'm A Londoner as the official song in his bid to become the capital's mayor.

Hubert has given his approval, not least because the musical arrangement is by Beatles' producer Sir George Martin.

Terrifying

He said: "I'm looking forward to hearing the result, I should think it should be a very good arrangement."

The song was penned as a love song to Hubert's home city. Recalling the Doodlebug that inspired him Hubert, still a regular broadcaster on Radio 2, said: "They sent ten over and only one reached London. It was a terrifying sight."

From such bloody beginnings Mr Gregg's song has endured to become instantly recognisable all over the world, so much so that in 1981 he was given the freedom of the City of London.

Bud Flanagan was the first person to sing the song in public, in a Crazy Gang show called Together Again which ran at the Victoria Palace from 1947 to 1951.

The song could have faded away with the final curtain call, but by then it had acquired a momentum of its own.

He said: "The show ran and ran and people were whistling it in the street, and the publishers were forced to publish it."

There have now been more than 60 performances and arrangements of the song.

Jack Warner used to whistle it at the beginning of Dixon of Dock Green.

Hubert, who has written more than 200 songs, said: "I'm very proud that it is popular because I wrote it for London, it is a tribute to my town."

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