Career
Bud Flanagan is best remembered as part of a double act with Chesney Allen, Flanagan and Allen. They had first met on active service in Flanders, but did not work together until 1926, touring with a Florrie Forde show. They established a reputation and were booked by Val Parnell at the Holborn Empire. As music hall comedians, they would often feature a mixture of comedy and music in their act and this led to a successful recording career as a duo and roles in film and television. Flanagan and Allen were both also members of The Crazy Gang, appearing in the first show at the London Palladium in 1931, and continued to work with the group, concurrently with their double-act career.
Flanagan and Allen's songs featured the same, usually gentle humour for which the duo were known in their live performances, and during the Second World War reflected the experiences of ordinary people during wartime. Songs like "We're Going To Hang Out The Washing On The Siegfried Line" mocked the German defences (Siegfried Line), while others like "Miss You" sang of missing one's sweetheart during enforced absences. Other songs such as their most famous "Underneath the Arches" (which Flanagan co-wrote with Reg Connelly) had universal themes such as friendship, which again, helped people relate to the subject matter. The music was usually melodic, following a binary verse, verse chorus structure, with a small dance band or orchestra providing the backing. The vocals were distinctive because while Flanagan was at least a competent singer and sang the melody lines, Allen used an almost spoken delivery to provide the harmonies.
Flanagan and Allen stopped working together with Chesney Allen's retirement in 1945, when Allen gave up performing to become a theatrical agent; but Flanagan continued working until his death. In 1959 he was awarded the OBE, and received the award from the Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace. Flanagan's last recording was Jimmy Perry and Derek Taverner's theme for the British sitcom Dad's Army, "Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr Hitler?", recorded shortly before his death in 1968 and for which he was paid '100 guineas' for his work. The song was a deliberate pastiche of the sort of songs Flanagan had sung during the war.
Bud Flanagan was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium.
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