Richard Stilgoe is a British songwriter, lyricist and musician, and broadcaster who is best known for his humorous songs and frequent television appearances. His output includes collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Peter Skellern. He is also a keen puzzler who has hosted several quiz shows and written several books on the subject.
In 1966 Stilgoe played Benjamin in the West End musical, Jorrocks. He made his name on the BBC television teatime programme, Nationwide, followed by Esther Rantzen’s That’s Life!, a light-hearted consumer affairs programme for which he wrote comic songs satirising minor domestic misfortunes, often to the tune of “Oh Mr Porter”. One notable song concerned officials who have “Statutory Right of Entry to Your Home”, with Stilgoe playing and singing, in barber-shop style, all parts himself using trick photography.
His ability to write a song from almost any source material and at speed is part of his cabaret act, which includes singing the instructions from a Swedish payphone; a pastiche of the King’s Singers listing the kings and queens of England in which he sings all four parts; and composing a song in the interval from words and musical notes called out by the audience. He has also written and presented BBC radio programmes, including Hamburger Weekend, Used Notes, Stilgoe’s Around, Maestro and Richard Stilgoe’s Traffic Jam Show on BBC Radio 4.
In 1979 the BBC aired “Decision ’79 Breakfast Special” as part of its coverage of the parliamentary elections that brought Margaret Thatcher to power; the show featured Stilgoe singing the election results. In 1981, Southern Television commissioned him to write a satirical song about the company that outbid them for southern England’s ITV franchise, Televison South; the result was “Portakabin TV”, a reference to the portable buildings TVS was forced to use as studios and offices until its own purpose-built complex in Maidstone could be completed and until Southern’s contract expired. The song was aired as part of Southern’s final broadcast on 31 December 1981, a retrospective programme titled “And It’s Goodbye From Us.”
Stilgoe is also notable for his charity work and fundraising. In the 1980s he founded the Alchemy Foundation which is funded from his royalties from the American productions of Starlight Express and The Phantom of the Opera. He is patron of the Surrey Care Trust in Woking. In the late 1990s he founded the Orpheus Centre which offers performing arts experiences to young people with disabilities. In 2012, Stilgoe was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his extensive charity work.
