Michael Flanders
Encyclopedia
Michael Henry Flanders OBE
, (1 March 192214 April 1975) was an English
actor
, broadcaster
, and writer
and performer of comic songs
. He is best known to the general public for his partnership with Donald Swann
performing as the duo Flanders and Swann
.
on 1 March 1922. The son of an actor and a professional violin
ist, Flanders' ambition from an early age was to work in the theatre
. He attended Westminster School
(where he first met Donald Swann
) and read History
at Christ Church, Oxford
from 1940.
While at Oxford, Flanders started work as a professional actor, but then left Oxford to join the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. The ship on which he was serving, HMS Marne
, was torpedoed off the coast of Africa
, west of Gibraltar
, in November 1942. Flanders survived the attack. Later he was promoted to sub-lieutenant
but contracted poliomyelitis
at sea, and spent the rest of his life from 1943 onwards in a wheelchair
.
Unable to return to Christ Church to continue his studies, he found work as a radio broadcaster. A chance meeting with Swann in 1948 led to the start of their professional partnership. They began writing songs for West-End
producer Laurier Lister, Swann writing the music and Flanders writing the words. Their songs were performed by artists such as Ian Wallace
and Joyce Grenfell
. They subsequently wrote two two-man revues, At The Drop Of A Hat
and At The Drop of Another Hat
, which they performed all over the world until their partnership ended in 1967.
Their more famous songs included "The Hippopotamus" ("Mud, mud, glorious mud") and "First and Second Law", in which they put to music the laws of thermodynamics. One of their most enduring numbers is the ever-so-mildly risqué "Have Some Madeira, M'Dear". Their songs celebrated transportation ("Slow Train
", "The Last Tram", "A Transport of Delight," the last-named a tribute to the London double-decker omnibus), animal life ("The Wart-Hog", "The Gnu", "The Elephant", and many others), common inconveniences in "The Gas-Man Cometh", "Motor Perpetuo" (about parking a car), "Song of Reproduction" (about hi-fidelity phonographs), and even classical music, with an irreverent "Guide to Britten" and a setting of lyrics by Flanders to the finale of Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4 ("Ill Wind"). Some of his songs were also political commentary, such as "20 Tons Of TNT" and "The War Of 14-18" (a translation of Georges Brassens
' "La guerre").
Outside his partnership with Swann, Flanders was a versatile librettist, actor and broadcaster. He wrote the words for comic operas such as Three's Company and Christmas Story, and a children's cantata Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo
. He appeared on stage in The Soldier's Tale and Ten Years Hard, and in two films, Doctor in Distress
(1963) and The Raging Moon
(1971). He also made many appearances on radio and television, and received an OBE in 1964.
His narration for Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf
remained a staple of EMI
's classical output for many years. Within the last few months of his life he also provided English-language narration and voicework for the French export children's animation Barbapapa
.
Flanders died suddenly of a ruptured intracranial berry aneurysm
on 14 April 1975 while on holiday at Betws-y-Coed
, Wales
. He was survived by his wife Claudia Cockburn
(daughter of journalist
Claud Cockburn
and Hope Hale Davis), whom he had married in 1959, and their daughters Laura
and Stephanie
.
Flanders' ashes were scattered in the grounds of Chiswick House
in west-central London
, a place where he very often liked to sit in the afternoon during the final years of his life.
On 30 June 2007, a documentary about Flanders and his work, presented by his daughter Stephanie Flanders
, aired on BBC Radio 4
's The Archive Hour, called Flanders on Flanders.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, (1 March 192214 April 1975) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, broadcaster
Broadcast journalism
Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are "broadcast", that is, published by electrical methods, instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. Broadcast methods include radio , television , and, especially recently, the Internet generally...
, and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and performer of comic songs
Novelty song
A novelty song is a comical or nonsensical song, performed principally for its comical effect. Humorous songs, or those containing humorous elements, are not necessarily novelty songs. The term arose in Tin Pan Alley to describe one of the major divisions of popular music. The other two divisions...
. He is best known to the general public for his partnership with Donald Swann
Donald Swann
Donald Ibrahím Swann was a British composer, musician and entertainer. He is best known to the general public for his partnership of writing and performing comic songs with Michael Flanders .-Life:...
performing as the duo Flanders and Swann
Flanders and Swann
The British duo Flanders and Swann were the actor and singer Michael Flanders and the composer, pianist and linguist Donald Swann , who collaborated in writing and performing comic songs....
.
Life and career
Michael Flanders was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
on 1 March 1922. The son of an actor and a professional violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist, Flanders' ambition from an early age was to work in the theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
. He attended Westminster School
Westminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...
(where he first met Donald Swann
Donald Swann
Donald Ibrahím Swann was a British composer, musician and entertainer. He is best known to the general public for his partnership of writing and performing comic songs with Michael Flanders .-Life:...
) and read History
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
at Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
from 1940.
While at Oxford, Flanders started work as a professional actor, but then left Oxford to join the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. The ship on which he was serving, HMS Marne
HMS Marne (G35)
HMS Marne was an M-class destroyer of the Royal Navy commissioned on 2 December 1941. She was built by Vickers-Armstrongs at High Walker Yard, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, and saw service in the Atlantic theatre of World War II....
, was torpedoed off the coast of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, west of Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
, in November 1942. Flanders survived the attack. Later he was promoted to sub-lieutenant
Sub-Lieutenant
Sub-lieutenant is a military rank. It is normally a junior officer rank.In many navies, a sub-lieutenant is a naval commissioned or subordinate officer, ranking below a lieutenant. In the Royal Navy the rank of sub-lieutenant is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant in the British Army and of...
but contracted poliomyelitis
Poliomyelitis
Poliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is an acute viral infectious disease spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route...
at sea, and spent the rest of his life from 1943 onwards in a wheelchair
Wheelchair
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, designed to be a replacement for walking. The device comes in variations where it is propelled by motors or by the seated occupant turning the rear wheels by hand. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing...
.
Unable to return to Christ Church to continue his studies, he found work as a radio broadcaster. A chance meeting with Swann in 1948 led to the start of their professional partnership. They began writing songs for West-End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
producer Laurier Lister, Swann writing the music and Flanders writing the words. Their songs were performed by artists such as Ian Wallace
Ian Wallace (singer)
Ian Bryce Wallace OBE was a British bass-baritone opera and concert singer, actor and broadcaster of Scottish extraction....
and Joyce Grenfell
Joyce Grenfell
Joyce Irene Grenfell, OBE was an English actress, comedienne, diseuse and singer-songwriter.-Early life:...
. They subsequently wrote two two-man revues, At The Drop Of A Hat
At the Drop of a Hat
At the Drop of a Hat is a musical revue by Flanders and Swann, described by them as "An After-Dinner Farrago". In the show, they both sang on a nearly bare stage, accompanied by Swann on the piano...
and At The Drop of Another Hat
At the Drop of Another Hat
At the Drop of Another Hat is musical revue by Flanders and Swann, similar in format to its long-running predecessor, At the Drop of a Hat . In the show, they both sang on a nearly bare stage, accompanied by Swann on the piano. The songs were linked by contemporary social commentary, mostly by...
, which they performed all over the world until their partnership ended in 1967.
Their more famous songs included "The Hippopotamus" ("Mud, mud, glorious mud") and "First and Second Law", in which they put to music the laws of thermodynamics. One of their most enduring numbers is the ever-so-mildly risqué "Have Some Madeira, M'Dear". Their songs celebrated transportation ("Slow Train
Slow Train
"Slow Train" is a song by the British duo Flanders and Swann, written in 1963.It laments the loss of British stations and railway lines in that era, due to the Beeching cuts, and also the passing of a way of life, with the advent of motorways etc....
", "The Last Tram", "A Transport of Delight," the last-named a tribute to the London double-decker omnibus), animal life ("The Wart-Hog", "The Gnu", "The Elephant", and many others), common inconveniences in "The Gas-Man Cometh", "Motor Perpetuo" (about parking a car), "Song of Reproduction" (about hi-fidelity phonographs), and even classical music, with an irreverent "Guide to Britten" and a setting of lyrics by Flanders to the finale of Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4 ("Ill Wind"). Some of his songs were also political commentary, such as "20 Tons Of TNT" and "The War Of 14-18" (a translation of Georges Brassens
Georges Brassens
Georges Brassens , 22 October 1921 – 29 October 1981), was a French singer-songwriter and poet.Brassens was born in Sète, a town in southern France near Montpellier...
' "La guerre").
Outside his partnership with Swann, Flanders was a versatile librettist, actor and broadcaster. He wrote the words for comic operas such as Three's Company and Christmas Story, and a children's cantata Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo
Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo
Captain Noah and His Floating Zoo is a cantata by Joseph Horovitz composed in a popular style for unison or two-part voices and piano, with optional bass and drums...
. He appeared on stage in The Soldier's Tale and Ten Years Hard, and in two films, Doctor in Distress
Doctor in Distress (film)
Doctor in Distress is a 1963 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Dirk Bogarde, James Robertson Justice, and Samantha Eggar. It was the fifth film in the Doctor Series...
(1963) and The Raging Moon
The Raging Moon
The Raging Moon is a British film from 1971 based on the book by British novelist Peter Marshall and starring Malcolm McDowell and Nanette Newman...
(1971). He also made many appearances on radio and television, and received an OBE in 1964.
His narration for Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf
Peter and the Wolf
Peter and the Wolf , Op. 67, is a composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936 in the USSR. It is a children's story , spoken by a narrator accompanied by the orchestra....
remained a staple of EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
's classical output for many years. Within the last few months of his life he also provided English-language narration and voicework for the French export children's animation Barbapapa
Barbapapa
Barbapapa is both the title character, and name of the "species" of said character, of a series of children's books written in the 1970s by Annette Tison and Talus Taylor, who resided in Paris, France. The books were originally written in French , and were later translated into over 30 languages...
.
Flanders died suddenly of a ruptured intracranial berry aneurysm
Intracranial berry aneurysm
An intracranial berry aneurysm, also known as a saccular aneurysm, is a sac-like outpouching in a cerebral blood vessel, which can seem berry-shaped, hence the name. Once a berry aneurysm has formed it is likely to rupture, causing a stroke...
on 14 April 1975 while on holiday at Betws-y-Coed
Betws-y-Coed
Betws-y-Coed is a village and community in the Conwy valley in Conwy County Borough, Wales. It has a population of 534. The name Betws or Bettws is generally thought to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon Old English 'bed-hus' - i.e. a bead-house - a house of prayer, or oratory...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. He was survived by his wife Claudia Cockburn
Claudia Cockburn
Claudia Cockburn Flanders was born in New York, USA. Her parents were Hope Hale Davis and the journalist Claud Cockburn...
(daughter of journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
Claud Cockburn
Claud Cockburn
Francis Claud Cockburn was a British journalist. He was well known proponent of communism. His saying, "believe nothing until it has been officially denied" is widely quoted in journalistic studies.He was the second cousin of novelist Evelyn Waugh....
and Hope Hale Davis), whom he had married in 1959, and their daughters Laura
Laura Flanders
Laura Flanders is a British-American journalist who presents the current events show GRITtv, broadcast weekdays on Link and Free Speech TV....
and Stephanie
Stephanie Flanders
Stephanie Hope Flanders, born 5 August 1968, is a British broadcast journalist, and is currently the BBC economics editor.She is the daughter of British actor and comic singer Michael Flanders and Claudia Cockburn.-Early life:...
.
Flanders' ashes were scattered in the grounds of Chiswick House
Chiswick House
Chiswick House is a Palladian villa in Burlington Lane, Chiswick, in the London Borough of Hounslow in England. Set in , the house was completed in 1729 during the reign of George II and designed by Lord Burlington. William Kent , who took a leading role in designing the gardens, created one of the...
in west-central London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, a place where he very often liked to sit in the afternoon during the final years of his life.
On 30 June 2007, a documentary about Flanders and his work, presented by his daughter Stephanie Flanders
Stephanie Flanders
Stephanie Hope Flanders, born 5 August 1968, is a British broadcast journalist, and is currently the BBC economics editor.She is the daughter of British actor and comic singer Michael Flanders and Claudia Cockburn.-Early life:...
, aired on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
's The Archive Hour, called Flanders on Flanders.
Flanders & Swann
- 1957 - Excerpts from At The Drop of a Hat (EPExtended playAn EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
) - 1957 - More Excerpts from At The Drop of a Hat (EP)
- 1957 - More out of the Hat! (EP)
- 1959 - Little Drummer Boy/The Storke Carol (EP)
- 1960 - At The Drop of a Hat (produced by George MartinGeorge MartinSir George Henry Martin CBE is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"— a title that he often describes as "nonsense," but the fact remains that he served as producer on all but one of The Beatles' original albums...
) - 1961 - The Bestiary of Flanders & Swann (EP)
- 1964 - At The Drop of Another Hat (produced by George Martin)
- 1964 - Favourites from At The Drop of Another Hat (EP)
- 1964 - More out of the New Hat (EP)
- 1966 - EMI Comedy Classics (Hat and Another Hat on two cassetteCompact CassetteThe Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
s) - 1967 - The Bestiary of Flanders & Swann (produced by George Martin)
- 1975 - And Then We Wrote...
- 1977 - Tried by the Centre Court
- 1994 - The Complete Flanders & Swann (first three albums in a boxed set)
- 1994 - A Transport of Delight: The Best of Flanders & Swann
- 1997 - More out of the Drop of a Hat - Again! (double cassette)
- 1999 - The Flanders and Swann Collection
- 2000 - A Drop of Hilarity from Flanders & Swann
- 2007 - Hat Trick: Flanders & Swann Collector's Edition
Other works
- 1953 - Three's Company (Michael Flanders & Anthony HopkinsAnthony HopkinsSir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
) - 1954 - The Soldier's Tale (Michael Flanders & Sergei ProkofievSergei ProkofievSergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
) - 1959 - The Christmas Story (Michael Flanders & the Mike SammesMike SammesMichael William "Mike" Sammes was an English musician and vocal session arranger, performing backing vocals on pop music recorded in the UK from 1955 to the 1970s.-Career:...
Singers) - 1960 - Peter and the Wolf (Prokofiev, Michael Flanders narrator)
- 1962 - Touches of Sweet Harmony (Michael Flanders, reader)
- 1962 - Mark's Gospel (Michael Flanders, reader)
- 1963 - The Comedy of Errors (Michael Flanders, actor)
- 1963 - Elizabeth the Great (Michael Flanders, actor)
- 1972 - Captain Noah & His Floating Zoo (Michael Flanders & Joseph HorovitzJoseph HorovitzJoseph Horovitz is a British composer and conductor. Horovitz's family emigrated to England in 1938. He studied music and modern languages at New College, Oxford, and later attended the Royal College of Music in London, studying composition with Gordon Jacob. He then undertook a year of further...
)