'The ground was burnt brown' - how racing survived the long, hot summer of 1976

Hot, sunny summers and snowy, cold winters were commonplace back in 1976, but temperatures deep into the 30s weren't. Global warming hadn't been invented back then, and for a young lad in the middle of a heatwave that year I suspect the most deep-seated fear concerned melting ice cream rather than melting icebergs.

That's not to say, though, that the meteorological crisis that began in late June didn't have its downsides, exacerbated by the socio-political turmoil with which the nation was already grappling.

As The Real Thing's You To Me Are Everything skirmished with The Combine Harvester by The Wurzels for the number one spot in the charts, Britain was beset by rampant inflation and unemployment, with prime minister James Callaghan – who had been appointed following the shock resignation of Harold Wilson in March – struggling to keep the economy shipshape. Chancellor of the exchequer Denis Healey did his best to cap public sector pay rises, the unions flexed their muscles, and then it got hot. Really hot.