Here is a question you might get on ITV gameshow The Chase: which British artist had the best-selling debut album in the UK last year? Was it (a) former One Direction star Zayn Malik; (b) hotly tipped Brits Critics’ Choice winner Jack Garratt; or (c) 56-year-old host of The Chase, Bradley Walsh? What looks like the joke answer is, in fact, the correct one: it’s (c).

Walsh’s album Chasing Dreams did better than anyone could have expected. Today, he is being presented with his gold record, marking 100,000 sales. The album is mostly covers of songbook classics such as That’s Life and Mr Bojangles. It is classily done, but not what you would think of as a debut album. Even Walsh can’t believe it has outperformed the likes of Malik.

“I just laughed when I found out,” he says. “I thought it was hysterical. I am probably the oldest new artist Sony has ever signed. Niall Horan (Zayn’s former bandmate) was sending me messages, laughing his head off. And I got big congratulations from Simon Cowell. He thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Walsh’s album was the only debut to go gold in 2016, in what was seen as a very disappointing year for the music industry. This is partly because most album listening now takes place on streaming services. Streams count for a lot less than purchases when measuring overall “sales” (they use a complicated formula to work it out, but, as a rule of thumb, a 10-track album streamed 100 times would count as one “sale”). Walsh’s audience, older listeners with mainstream tastes, are one of the few groups who will still fork out for an album.

That older audience has changed the nature of the music industry in the UK. The bestselling album released last year overall was by Michael Ball and Alfie Boe, both old mates of Walsh. (He used to perform standup on “Mike’s” tours in the 90s and gave an unknown “Alf” an early opportunity: “My manager said: ‘I’ve got a young lad from Fleetwood. He wants to sing a couple of tunes.’ I said: ‘Sure, get him on stage.’”). Olly Murs, Alexander Armstrong, Michael Bublé and Rick Astley were also among those with bestsellers, all singers who host shows or perform in musical theatre. It seems we are going back to the days of the all-round entertainers, the era of Des O’Connor and Bruce Forsyth: write the theme tune, sing the theme tune.

I ask Walsh what it takes to get to that all-rounder status. “It’s just about being an entertainer; it’s about having all those tools over the years to do all sorts: films, musicals, playing a bit of piano, running a quiz show – it just becomes part of the job. Years ago, there were shows such as Opportunity Knocks, now it’s Britain’s Got Talent: back then, it was working men’s clubs, now it’s cruise ships.” He says, Adele and Ed Sheeran aside, younger artists are too focused on cool, and have forgotten the basics of melody and “proper old-fashioned tunes”.

“I like something you can hum along to. I think new artists sometimes miss the point … I can’t listen to rap music, it’s not my thing. They say that they’re the modern poets: of course they are, but it’s not for me.” He’s not a fan of DJ culture either: “Who is the biggest DJ at the moment? I don’t even know what they’re doing, they’re taking two tunes and mashing them up together. They’re not even their tunes! I dunno. I don’t get it.”

• This article was updated on 20 February 2017. An earlier version stated that Bradley Walsh had the highest selling debut album in 2016. It was the biggest selling debut album by a British artist.