If you ever needed confirmation that we all need a place to start in life look at the evidence of Simon Cowell dressed as 'Wonderdog' in a British TV interview in the 1980s.

It might explain why Simon and Susan Boyle, an unlikely couple if ever there was one, have hit it off so well. Both have come through extremely humbling experiences.

In addition they share a family history of discrimination. Simons' grandparents were Jewish immigrants to Britain who were discriminated against. Susan's were Irish imimigrants to Scotland who faced the same fate.

In their own lives too, they faced adversity. The lonely young woman shunned by peers and known cruelly as Susie Simple, has a soul mate in man who once spent part of his life dressed as a dog. Don't think that experience did not shape Simon every bit as much as Susan's loneliness shaped her.

Back in the early 80s Simon , an aspiring young impressario had bought the rights to a record from Germany called 'Ruff Mix" that consisted of dogs barking to a techno beat. He wanted to promote the heck out of it and went on TV dressed as Wonderdog the main character talking about his friends Al Satian and Joe Cocker Spaniel - get it ? Joe Cocker the rock star.

The interview is hilarious but it is a sad tail from there on, the record was a dog reaching No 31 in the British charts at its height. Ruff going you might say. Simon unleashed a huge failure. Sooner than you could say Doggone the record was history.

(Strangely,later, Simon also backed a group called Curiousity Killed the Cat who also turned out to be a cat-astrophe,and left him feline wounded.)

Simon didn't let that little setback as a dog ruin his career. After a brief paws (sorry) for reflection he went on to become the most famous producer in recent British history. When he stumbled across the Scottish nightingale, Susan Boyle, who had her own history of failure and admitted poignantly she had never been kissed, the light went on.

So when people seek to unscramble the details of their odd couple relationship it may not be that odd at all. Shared adversity is a common bind that runs very deep. The smooth producer and the lass from Lothian have much more in common than we might suspect.

Watch this dynamic play out in the next few months as the two become a global musical force. There will be no more dog outfits for Simon or people who won't want to kiss Susan.

But Simon and she might well be that rarest of all combinations, a dynamic duo who through shared experiences make the whole much bigger than the two parts. The shared creative genius of' 'Sibo' will make them one of the biggest acts on the planet.