Rik Mayall single Noble England reaches UK top 10

A football song recorded by Rik Mayall four years ago has gone into the UK top 10 after a campaign by fans to pay tribute to the late comedian.

The Young Ones and Bottom star, who died on Monday, recorded Noble England before the 2010 World Cup.

Fans began buying it after his death and it has landed at number seven in this week's official UK singles chart.

Mayall was 56 when he died after having what his wife described as "an acute cardiac event" following a morning run.

Battle cry

In Noble England, Mayall delivered a speech adapted from Shakespeare's Henry V.

"Once more onto the pitch, dear friends, once more," he urged, invoking the spirit of the Battle of Agincourt.

"That battle was basically very few Englishmen against the rest of the world," Mayall said in an interview in 2010.

"When you hear the speech delivered in a gutsy way it makes you go, 'Yeah, right, bring 'em on, let's do it', rather than, 'How nice, what a lovely piece of poetry.'"

Elsewhere on this week's chart, England's 1996 anthem Three Lions was a re-entry at number 27, with Jennifer Lopez, Claudia Leitte and Pitbull's official World Cup song We Are One at number 29.

Former X Factor contestant Ella Henderson went straight to number one with her debut single Ghost.

In the album chart, Kasabian went straight to number one with their fifth album 48:13 and there were also new entries in the top 10 for Jack White, Passenger, Dolly Parton and First Aid Kit.