With a lot of glider winch launches and landings, and two excellent instructors, I soloed after 3 hours 5 minutes (including a 30m flight in a Tiger for spinning) at Thruxton in 1964. That was on a VERY Simple Single Engine Aircraft, a Jackeroo.
No brakes, flaps, radio or any other electrics. No ATC. Up to 8 (or 10?) other aircraft in the circuit, and Middle Wallop nearby. I completed the 30 hour PPL in 25 days. Of course for the navigation exercises, I just followed the magenta line. The instructors didn't see anything wrong with me using a magenta china graph.