Behind every good dancing show on television is an even better band, and trumpet player Tony Dudley was part of one of the biggest.

Cult classic Come Dancing ran for 50 years on the BBC and Dudley, founding member of Aviva, a Latin jazz band playing at the Green Dragon on Sunday, was part of the Andy Ross Big Band Orchestra who played on the programme for 30 years.

"It was really hard work," he recalls.

"I was an all day job and quite tiring, we would start at 10am and not finish until midnight.

"The band in Strictly Come Dancing today is terrific and probably even a little bit better than us."

Tony has been playing the trumpet for half a century and still enjoys it as much today as he did when he first took it up for the Royal Artillery Band in Woolwich.

"I was in that for six years and then joined the New Jazz Orchestra which won the best LP of the year award in 1965 before going on to play in bands and the meeting Ross," he says.

He founded Aviva, which includes two trumpeters, an alto and tenor sax, a trombone, a piano, a bass and drums, in 1993.

"It's jazz with a Latin feel," he explains.

"I have been a professional all my life but I decided to stop playing it professionally and just wanted to do something else.

"It's more of a hobby because we don't earn any money from playing in the band.

"I knew so many people it didn't take long to get a band together.

"There's lots of youngsters coming through from the colleges as well at the moment and they are really good players."

Aviva, Green Dragon, High Street, July 19, 12pm, free. Call 020 8667 0684 or visit jazznet.co.uk