Michael Flanders Blue Plaque

About This Blue Plaque

Michael Flanders was a renowned British songwriter, actor and broadcaster best known for his witty and satirical collaborations with Donald Swann. Born in London in 1922, Flanders grew up in a creative household. Despite contracting polio at age 21 which left him paralyzed from the waist down, his indomitable spirit and sharp mind propelled him to success in the arts.

Flanders met Donald Swann while studying at Oxford. Together they formed the comic duo Flanders and Swann, writing and performing satirical songs that cleverly skewered British society and politics in the 1950s and 60s. Their revues At the Drop of a Hat and At the Drop of Another Hat were wildly successful in the West End and on Broadway. Hit songs like “The Gnu,” “The Gasman Cometh” and “Have Some Madeira M’Dear” showcased Flanders’ keen wit and mastery of the English language.

Beyond his stage work, Flanders was a prolific broadcaster, actor and writer. He appeared regularly on the BBC’s The Brains Trust and later hosted his own radio programs. He lived and worked at 1 Scarsdale Villas in London’s posh Kensington neighborhood. It was in the garden studio of this residence that Flanders penned many of his cleverest songs and sketches with Swann.

Sadly, Flanders passed away in 1975 at the age of 53, but his legacy endures. The comic brilliance of Flanders and Swann had a profound influence on subsequent generations of British comedians and satirists. In 2018, an English Heritage Blue Plaque was unveiled at 1 Scarsdale Villas, forever commemorating the “writers and performers of comic songs” who brought so much laughter and insight to the world from this Kensington abode.