The Wurzels have revealed they were unlikely 70s sex symbols when they topped the charts with hits including The Combine Harvester, writes Peter Dyke. Yet while flamboyant pin-ups like David Bowie and David Essex attracted the attention of hysterical schoolgirls, they appealed to their mothers.

Original band member Tommy Banner says: "Were we sex symbols? Oh yeah, we were. By the mums.

"It was a good job that they had delays on those phone-ins on kids shows like Swap Shop. We would have some dodgy phone-ins. It was mums on the line." He added: "I wouldn't dare repeat what they said. The gist was they wanted us! The thing is, two out of three of us - me and Tony Baylis - were single back then.Only Pete was happily married. We have still got loads of fans but I guess now they just want a cup of cocoa with us."

The Wurzels have been back in the news after releasing their first single created by artificial intelligence, Wurzel Me Up.

Tommy explained: "You can only sing about farming for so long and you run out of ideas so we used AI to come up with something new."