suggested programme notes

Richard Stilgoe has spent fifty years as a performer and writer in all forms of the performing arts.  On television he appeared on Nationwide, That's Life and several series of his own.  On stage he toured for many years with his one-man show and subsequently his two-man show with Peter Skellern. 

He wrote lyrics for Cats, Starlight Express and The Phantom of the Opera and music and lyrics for Bodywork , Brilliant the Dinosaur, ‘Orpheus – the Mythical’ and Road Rage.  His broadcasting work has earned him the New York Radio Festival Gold Award, three Monaco Festival Prizes and the Prix Italia.  Richard sits on various boards involved in music education.  In 1997 he founded the Orpheus Centre in Surrey, where young disabled people prepare for independent living through a series of performing arts courses.

He was High Sheriff of Surrey in 1998, during which year he was awarded the OBE.  He owns and drives a JCB digger, and has five children and thirteen grandchildren, none of whom told him he was going to be the subject of This is Your Life in June 2001.   In the Jubilee honours list of 2012 Richard was knighted for charitable service through the Alchemy Foundation.

• Family History

  Stilgoe is an odd name, and nobody seems to know where it comes from. My Dad and my grandfather were both very keen on family history, and traced the family ...
  Read more>>

• Helpers

  I am hugely grateful to this list of people who encouraged me and aren’t still around to decide whether it was worth it.
  Read more>>