'The Monkees did what Glee did – 30 years earlier!' Micky Dolenz on the band's legacy and impact

"The auditions were extensive," he says on the phone from his home in LA. "We had to sing, play, do a little comedy and show we could act. I was a guitarist and for the audition I played Johnny B Goode by Chuck Berry. The Monkees did what Glee did — only 30 years earlier!"

Those who grew up with The Monkees, and their children and grandchildren, can now enjoy the boys’ antics all over again on Rewind TV. When Dolenz was cast, he remembers being told: "You’re going to be the wacky drummer."

For the child star of Circus Boy in the '50s, who had to learn to ride an elephant, acquiring the rudiments of drumming was no problem: "I could read music, played classical guitar and had been in covers bands. I’d sat behind the drums and played around, so I wasn’t starting from square one.

"But I didn’t have to learn every rhythm and tempo to be at the standard of a studio musician. I learnt what I had to learn and I think I did pretty well."

At the heart of The Monkees’ appeal was the chemistry — Dolenz paid tribute to Jones on his death as "the brother I never had". "They cast it very well," he says now, "as we absolutely did all connect, especially on the comedy."

Having acted from the age of 10, he was used to following a script. "But on The Monkees they encouraged us to improvise, in fact they trained us in improvisation, as the producers wanted that feeling of spontaneity. It was the first time I’d ever improvised and I was a little bit shy to do it!"

The zany formula of music and slapstick worked well, and Monkeemania took off in a big way. The Beatles were fans, and John Lennon famously compared the Monkees to the Marx Brothers.

Youth culture was having its moment. The premise of four struggling musicians all sharing a rented house with poor plumbing and trying to make it big in rock ’n’ roll (in the show, the band never did make it) endeared it, Dolenz thinks, "to all those kids who were struggling in their basements and garages and trying to be famous."

The band started rehearsing immediately, releasing four UK top 10 singles. Dolenz recalls Mike Nesmith saying, when they eventually went on the road to perform live: "It was like Pinocchio becoming a real little boy!"

Dolenz was responsible for the choice of an unlikely support act — the Jimi Hendrix Experience. "I saw them at the Monterey Festival and they were a very theatrical act with costumes and effects and stuff, like we were, so I thought it would make a good mix. This was before Hendrix was extremely famous!"

What were Dolenz’s favourite Monkees’ songs? "That’s hard. We did such a variety of material — I was more of a hardcore rock ’n’ roller, Mike was country rock, Peter was folk and David was Broadway… Of the ballads I sang, the one I liked best was Sometime in the Morning by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, and of course, in pop, I’m a Believer by Neil Diamond."

Dolenz actually lived in the UK for 12 years from 1977, working behind the camera for the BBC and LWT. Having just released his first album in seven years, Live at the Troudadour, he is about to resume his US tour of "songs and stories". With a whole new audience about to enjoy The Monkees, he has every reason to believe he could bring it to the UK.

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The Monkees is airing now on Rewind TV in the UK.

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