Ivor Novello
BBC Radio 3 are featuring Ivor Novello on their Composer of the Week programme. Broadcast for five days from Boxing Day 2016.
BBC Radio 3 – Composer of the Week – Christmas 2016
I am delighted to have been asked to take part in a BBC Radio 3 Composer of the Week that will feature Ivor Novello – for the first time in the programmes 70 year history. As well as acting as a consultant for the scripts, I am also interviewed by the programmes presenter Donald Macleod. There are also interviews with Rosy Runciman (Archivist for Delfont Mackintosh Theatres) at the West End’s Novello Theatre in the Waldorf Bar. The images I donated to the theatre when it changed its name to the Novello are displayed in the bar. Billy Differ is the Estates Manager for Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, was also interviewed, and his offices are situated in the flat atop the theatre where Ivor Novello lived from 1913 until his death in 1951. These images were taken on the day of recording at BBC Broadcasting House, the Novello Theatre, and the Flat above the theatre.
It was a brilliant day of recording, and the programme is produced for BBC Radio 3 by Luke Whitlock. The five one hour long programmes will be broadcast on the 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th & 30th December 2016. Truly a Christmas Special from the BBC that will also include much of Novello’s early music that has not been heard for nearly a hundred years.
Only a decade ago the name Ivor Novello would have meant little to anyone. Discarded into the garbage can of history, Novello’s fate was less than dignified. Even the music award which bears his name, the Ivor’s, seemed to do little to remind people of who Novello actually was and what he achieved across theatre and film genres.
Robert Altman’s decision to portray Novello in his film Gosford Park, and use Novello’s music, changed everything. Ironic really, because the Hollywood system which had failed to appreciate and fully utilise Novello’s abilities during his lifetime, would be the same system several decades later that would catapult Novello and his music back into the world.
Since Robert Altman’s Oscar and Bafta winning movie Gosford Park, in which Novello was portrayed by Jeremy Northam, there has been a resurgance of interest in Novello; with that has come a renewed appreciation of his music and his achievements as an actor, playwright, film star and creator of lavish romantic musicals. Sir Cameron Mackintosh has acknowledged this by renaming the Strand Theatre to the Novello Theatre in London’s West End.
My quest to search for answers and understand Novello’s life, work and the ruritanian ideals he embraced, has been ever fascinating – and no doubt will continue to be so in the future. I like to think I have helped in a small way to bring Novello back into the public domain – certainly the classic movie Gosford Park will continue to ignite interest in Novello, even a hundred years from now, so it’s unlikely he will be completely forgotten again.
2016 CHRISTMAS SPECIAL – BBC RADIO 3 – COMPOSER OF THE WEEK
1/5 – Keep The Home Fires Burning – 26th December at 12 noon.
2/5 – The Next Valentino – 27th December at 12 noon.
3/5 – Glamorous Night – 28th December at 12 noon.
4/5 – Singing For World Peace – 29th December at 12 noon.
5/5 – Novello Does Time – 30th December at 12 noon.
