At the Drop of a Hippopotamus ...

I had an evening of Flanders and Swann last night, and a rattling good one it was too. It was performed by two young men called Tim FitzHigham (Flanders) and Duncan Walsh Atkins (Swann), and the show was presented in the Maltings Arts Theatre, a tiny place embedded in one of the shopping centres in St Albans. They managed to look uncommonly like the originals, except of course that there was no wheelchair, which allowed for a great deal more movement and comic business.

They have been touring with this aptly named show every year since 2002, and have produced their own CD of the show. Not surprisingly the audience was heavily loaded with older people, although a good number of children had been brought along too, and nobody had any difficulty in entering into the spirit of the thing - lovely familiar stuff that is part of our cultural fabric for many of us. The programme of 20 songs contained old favourites such as The Gasman Cometh, Misalliance (The Honeysuckle and the Bindweed), Have some Madeira M'dear, and many of the animal songs.

They have bookings around the country until mid July, and more to come, and I would thoroughly recommend them for lovers of 'The Hat'. Go to www.flandersandswann.info and click on Tour to see the dates.