So what does each of them personally get out of Thursday nights?

“It stops me being boring,” Peter answers.

“I wouldn’t go that far!” Ken interjects in a flash, to chortles around the table.

“You have to do things,” Paul adds on the importance of keeping friendship fresh.

“You can’t just meet up as a group for a reunion because all you discuss is the past. But if you keep on doing things, then it continues and there’s always something new to talk about.”

When the group met for the first time in 1968, Labour were in power, Manchester City were champions of English football and England had fallen narrowly short of their pursuit of a maiden European Championship title.

So some things don’t change.

And despite having had 17 children, 33 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren between them since that first drink 56 years ago, the togetherness of this evergreen and happy-go-lucky group hasn’t either.

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