Michael Flanders

• 1. The Polio That Changed A Career

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  Michael Henry Flanders was born on the 1st of March 1922 in Hampstead, London. He grew up as the third child and only son to Percy Henry Flanders and his wife Rosa Laura. His father worked as an actor and cinema manager while his mother played the violin professionally. From 1936 until 1940 he attended Westminster School where he met future stars like Peter Ustinov and Donald Swann. The young student also studied History at Christ Church Oxford and directed plays for university groups. In October 1941 he made his professional acting debut at the Oxford Playhouse playing Valentine in Shaw's You Never Can Tell. Life seemed to be moving forward rapidly for this promising young man. Then came a torpedo attack on HMS Marne in 1942 which left him unharmed but changed everything soon after. During the following year he contracted poliomyelitis while serving in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. He spent three years recovering in hospitals before being discharged in 1946. The disease left him reliant on a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

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• 2. Radio Work And New Audiences

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  Flanders returned to his family home in Hampstead Garden Suburb after leaving hospital. A stage acting career was no longer possible so he found work as a radio broadcaster instead. He wrote song lyrics and arranged small musical gatherings with amateurs including Gerard Hoffnung and Frank Hauser. At the same time his old school friend Donald Swann began composing music for revues. Their trio called In the D'Oyly Cart was accepted by producer Laurier Lister for his new show Oranges and Lemons. The revue proved highly successful and Lister commissioned further work from the pair for Penny Plain in 1951. They contributed songs like Prehistoric Complaint and Surly Girls to that production. Flanders consolidated his career as a broadcaster during the 1950s on both radio and television. He presented programmes ranging from sports commentary to poetry readings. He served as chairman of The Brains Trust for two years after it moved from radio to television. He preferred performing to writing and said that he wrote mainly to give himself something to perform.

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• 3. The Hat Revue Partnership

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  As established and successful songwriters Flanders and Swann were invited to lecture at Dartington International Summer School in 1956. Flanders found that his spoken introductions were as well received by the audience as the songs themselves. They decided to give a show along similar lines in London. They took the New Lindsey Theatre for a limited three-week run starting on the 31st of December 1956. The venue held about 150 people and sat outside the West End theatre district. Press notices were good and box-office business did excellent. The pair were offered a West End transfer but turned it down unanimously initially. After sleepless nights they reconsidered and transferred to the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden on the 24th of January 1957. The Times reported that it took the audience by storm. The show ran for 808 performances until the 2nd of May 1959. In August 1959 they took the revue to the Edinburgh Festival. On the 8th of October they opened in New York at Broadway's John Golden Theatre playing there for 215 performances. Walter Kerr wrote in the New York Herald Tribune that the duo made them lively witty literate and explosively funny.

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• 4. Diverse Writing And Performance

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  During breaks in the schedule of the Hat shows Flanders performed on radio television stage film and concert platforms. He appeared at the Aldwych Theatre in London in 1962 as the Storyteller in Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle. In 1970 he starred in the revue Ten Years Hard by Peter Myers though the show closed within a month despite his praised performance. He acted in films including Doctor in Distress released in 1963 and The Raging Moon from 1971. Flanders continued to broadcast regularly on BBC radio anchoring series like Scrapbook and Battle for the Atlantic. He was a regular guest on quiz shows such as Twenty Questions and Animal Vegetable and Mineral. On television he presented the concert opera and ballet series Gala Performance. As a writer his best-known work outside revues was the text for Captain Noah and His Floating Zoo with music by Joseph Horovitz. This children's cantata won an Ivor Novello Award in 1976. He published a book of poems called Creatures Great and Small in 1964 and a children's book titled The Sayings and Doings of Nasrudin the Wise in 1974.

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• 5. Recording Legacy And Narration

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  Parlophone records made live recordings of both Hat shows plus studio recordings of songs about animals. Unreleased material privately recorded or off-air was later released on LP and CD. For EMI Flanders recorded the narration of Peter and the Wolf with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Efrem Kurtz in 1959. With Fenella Fielding he recorded Edith Sitwell's Façade poems with Walton's music played by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields conducted by Neville Marriner in 1972. Flanders had long been fascinated by Façade calling it an extraordinarily difficult work that pushed him to limits. He recorded as narrator in Antony Hopkins's opera Three's Company in 1954. He served as reader in Touches of Sweet Harmony , Music inspired by Shakespeare from 1962. He also appeared as the Dromios in The Comedy of Errors with John Neville playing the Antipholuses in 1963. As reader of the whole of St Mark's Gospel he issued a three LP set in 1962. With the Michael Sammes singers he recorded The Little Drummer Boy which was issued as a single disc.

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• 6. Personal Life And Disability Advocacy

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  On the 31st of December 1959 Flanders married Claudia Davis daughter of journalist Claud Cockburn. They had two daughters named Laura and Stephanie both of whom became journalists. Flanders was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1964 New Year's Honours. He was an eloquent advocate for better access to theatres for people with disabilities. Later he interested himself in other campaigning issues regarding accessibility. After his death Claudia Flanders continued to promote the cause of accessibility for wheelchair users. His personal life remained private yet his public advocacy grew stronger over time. He used his platform to highlight barriers faced by disabled performers and audiences alike. His marriage provided stability during years of intense touring and recording schedules.

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• 7. Death And Posthumous Commemoration

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  Flanders died suddenly on the 14th of April 1975 aged 53 while on holiday at Betws-y-Coed in Wales. The cause was a ruptured intracranial berry aneurysm. His ashes were scattered in the grounds of Chiswick House in west London where he often liked to sit in afternoons during final years. On the 30th of June 2007 BBC Radio 4 broadcast Flanders on Flanders a documentary by his daughter Stephanie about her father and his work. The Michael Flanders Centre a 75-place day care centre in Acton London was founded in his honour by Claudia Flanders and others. These tributes ensured his legacy endured beyond his sudden passing. The centre continues to serve the community as a living memorial to his contributions to arts and disability rights.

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