Our childhood, without television, was … by radio, and we listened to all sorts of different programmes, especially Children’s Hour. We also heard a wide variety of music which was broadcast, either through programmes about it or on request shows such as Housewives’ Choice and Forces Favourites. This was where I first heard what might now be called a comedy duo, Flanders and Swann. I knew nothing about them except I loved their catchy tunes, but mere than that I was fascinated by, appreciated and admired their lyrics.
Michael Flanders, half of the duo, was born in 1922 and tragically after being a very active man, contracted polio from which he recovered but which forced him to use a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He caught this vile disease during the war, but his disability didn’t prevent him from collaborating with a school friend and composer, Donald Swann, to write and perform hugely successful songs in the late 1940’s through to the mid-1950’s for revues in the West End. Their most successful show was At the Drop of a Hat, which they followed up with At the Drop of Another Hat; they carried this through from 1956 to 1967 in theatres throughout the British Isles, the USA and Australia. Sadly, Michael Flanders died too young in 1975.
Donald Swann, unlike his partner Michael Flanders, did not serve in the war as he was a conscientious objector; he has an interesting family background as an ancestor went to Russia and lived there with his family, then a couple of generations later the Swanns, now with an extra ‘n’ returned to Britain and Donald was born in 1923.
http://https://youtu.be/1vh-wEXvdW8
Lois Elsden 