Betty Boo: ‘The BBC said my hot pants were too short for Top of the Pops’

• Betty Boo is at home in rural Wiltshire, recalling the time Madonna tried to sign her. “It was a great opportunity,” she begins, as she chops up a lunchtime roast chicken, of the offer to join Madge’s label Maverick. It was 1994 and the 24-year-old West Londoner born Alison Clarkson had already enjoyed huge UK chart success with three Top 10 singles – Hey DJ/I Can't Dance (To That Music You're Playing), with The Beatmasters and solo hits Doin’ The Do and Where Are You Baby? – and platinum-sellin