Famous People You've Never Heard Of

Clara Schumann, a pianist, composer and piano teacher.  And wife of Robert Schumann. Clara Wieck had a fascinating life- a child prodigy, like Mozart before her she was touring as a concert pianist under the watchful eye of her domineering father from a very young age.  She went on to marry Robert, have eight children and continue to work in the male dominated world of classical music until she di...

Ally Sloper's Half-Holiday was the name of a weekly comic strip which first appeared on 3 May 1884.    Before Superman, Spiderman, Desperate Dan and  Dennis the Menace came Ally Sloper.  From 1884 until the 1920s, the red-nosed social climber who poked fun at the English people and their customs was a household name and national favourite. Ally Sloper takes us into the realms of the first com...

Who was Fred Karno?  and what was his army? We talk to David Crump whose biography of today's subject reveals all - and some! Karno was a giant personality who had a giant effect on theatre and cinema as we know it.  The man who gave  Stan Laurel, Charlie Chaplin and the Crazy Gang their first break and almost single handedly invented the type of slapstick we recognise in the silent movies ha...

Back in the dark days of Lockdown number 2 at the end of 2020 Lottie and Linda were enjoying the TV series Harlots .  Whilst chatting about it Lottie remembered seeing the blue plaque that is dedicated to Priss Fotheringham, the "second best whore in London".  And the idea for a podcast episode was born! For reasons many and varied it's taken us a whole year to bring the episode to...

Amanda Ira Aldridge, one of the most important female composers of the 20th century has been all but forgotten. Daughter of the groundbreaking actor Ira Aldridge,  Amanda, was also a singer and in her latter years a voice teacher.  One of her pupils was Paul Robeson who approached her when he cane to  the UK to play Othello.  He was only the second black actor to play the role.  Amanda's fath...

For this special episode  we've moved away from talking about our long forgotten heroes of history to talk to our very much up to date  award winning theatre-maker - and hero -  Christopher Green. Christopher is a huge advocate of theatre as an experience and of the "all the world's a stage" ethos.  In this conversation we talk about experiential theatre, site-specific producti...

Fred Barnes was a huge star in his time, but his fame, fortune and undeniable glamour hid a tragic story and self-destructive nature. Christopher Green and John Orchard talk to Lottie about Fred Barnes'  tragic life and death, how he has been almost written out of history and their own projects to bring him back into popular culture. A blue plaque to Fred Barnes will be unveiled on 18th Octob...

Vesta Tilley was possibly the most famous male impersonator of all time and a huge star of the Victorian Music Hall.  The girl from Worcester, who was treading the boards from the age of 3 was also the wife of an MP and "Britain's best recruiting sergeant" during WW1. In this episode Ann-Lindsey Wickens tells us what it's like to portray this iconic figure, and Vesta's his...

"The Diary of a Nobody" has long been a favourite book of both Tim Shaw and Andy Smith.  They've seen it on stage, listened to it on the radio and, of course, read it. So one rainy August day in Edinburgh after seeing Rodney Bewes in his on man version of 3 Men in a Boat and over a small sherry or two they hit upon the idea of adapting Charles Pooter's  diary into a one man pla...

This season's audio drama is : The Diary of a Nobody, by George & Weedon Grossmith, said by Evelyn Waugh to be the "funniest book ever written". The book has never been out of print and is available at all good bookshops. This adaptation is by Tim Shaw.  It is directed by Steve Taylor Charles Pooter - Andy Smith Carrie - Lottie Walker Lupin - Steve Taylor Studio Recording,  Prod...

George Grossmith created many of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic baritone roles and was known for his delivery of the famous patter songs. He was also a writer and composer who entertained royalty in the parlours of palaces and a journalist who spent time as a Bow Street Court reporter.  And, together with his brother Weedon he was responsible for producing "The Diary of a Nobody", whi...

The original "greatest showman" was not P.T. Barnum, it was a chap from Newcastle Under Lyme in Staffordshire, who went by the name Philip Astley.  Astley was a soldier and talented equestrian who went on to invent what we now recognise as the modern day circus.  His story is one of the many that prove that truth is stranger (certainly more remarkable) than fiction. Andrew Van Buren hail...

Margaret Monod talks about her blog, "Into the Limelight" and her fabulous collection of Music Hall postcards . Today's Podcast: Host:  Lottie Guest: Margaret Monod Edited By:  Jacob Taylor Music: James Hall This is a special bonus episode broadcast specially for the British Music Hall Society's Music Hall & Variety Day Follow Margaret on Twitter:  @monomaniablogs To find o...

Welcome back to "Famous People You've Never Heard Of"! We've some fabulous guests talking about some truly fabulous people and hope that you enjoy finding out about them all. Some of our contributors this season are: Stephen Bourne Lyn Brown MP Moira Buffini Christopher Green John Orchard Andrew van Buren And some of our wonderful subjects are: Vesta Tilley, Billy Waters, Phili...

A short message to reassure our listeners that you're not abandoned! We've had a slight delay but Series Two will be up and running soon. In the meantime, check out the show notes for all of Series One , which  have been updated and do use this downtime to catch up on any episodes you've missed.  If you want to revisit Episodes 3 and 4 (the ones that missed out on the all singing al...

Alison Young is the Secretary of the British Music Hall Society.  She ran away from the law to research and write about her family connections with the Music Hall and has uncovered many little gems that she shares with us today. "Dainty Daisy Dormer" was a Music Hall star.  She was also Alison's great great aunt.  She and her sisters toured around the UK  - and much further afield e...

Today's episode features writer and actor Paterson Joseph, author of the play "Sancho, An Act of Remembrance", which he has been performing for some 10 years and brings back to the theatre next year.   He has also recently completed a book about  Sancho, this incredible man who was born on a slave ship in the Atlantic and died a businessman in London. Sancho's life was lived to...

Nelly Power was a huge star of music hall who is now pretty much forgotten. In 2017/18  Blue Fire's Lottie Walker was researching the life of Marie Lloyd when she discovered Nelly, who was in fact the first person to sing the famous song "The Boy I Love Is Up in the Gallery".   And made it her mission to get Ms Power the recognition she deserves. By 2019  J.J. Leppink had written th...

Marie Lloyd, Queen of the Music Hall was a force of nature with a larger than life personality. At one time the highest paid act in the country, she sang a string of hit songs including "Oh, Mr Porter" and "Don't Dilly Dally on the Way". Finding fame at the age of 15 she spent the next 40 years entertaining on the music halls and vaudeville theatres around the globe.  Her...

Alice Thornton was an ordinary, if somewhat well to do woman of the 17th century. She lived through the time of Plague, the Great Fire of London, the English Civil War and the Restoration.  But as the old saying says "there are no troubles as big as your own" and Alice's troubles (indeed tragedies), which were many are what she recorded in her diary. Dr Debbie Cannon, who is a write...

Just before Christmas 2020 we had a  jolly conversation with Kate Griffin,  author of the "Kitty Peck" novels about her interest in music hall. Kate tells us about her love of theatre, how she fell in love with music hall and Jenny Hall,  the real artiste that Kitty Peck is based on.  We also talk about principal boys, theatre ghosts and what pantomime was like in days gone by. The &quot...

Renata Kobetts Miller is Professor of English and Deputy Dean of Humanities and the Arts at the City College of New York. Her book, "The Victorian Actress in the Novel and on the  Stage"  begins in the 1830s and ends in the 1910s.  It looks at how Victorian novels and plays used the actress, who was a significant figure for the relationship between women and the public sphere, to define...

Alison Young is the Secretary of the British Music Hall Society.  She ran away from the law to research and write about her family connections with the Music Hall and has uncovered many little gems that she shares with us today. "Dainty Daisy Dormer" was a Music Hall star.  She was also Alison's great great aunt.  She and her sisters toured around the UK  - and much further afield e...

Today's episode features writer and actor Paterson Joseph, author of the play "Sancho, An Act of Remembrance", which he has been performing for some 10 years and brings back to the theatre next year.   He has also recently completed a book about  Sancho, this incredible man who was born on a slave ship in the Atlantic and died a businessman in London.  Sancho's life was lived t...

Author and playwright  David Slattery Christy, talks to us about his grandfather, Reg Pratley. Reg's story shines a light on the social history of the early 20th Century.  From growing up in a sleepy Oxfordshire village via a short spell in the Royal Navy, Reg Pratley ended up managing one of the largest and  most prestigious travelling fairgrounds in England.  His story is part Mills and Boo...