An Evening of Flanders and Swann
At the Drop of a Hippopotamus

This show now has its own website: Flanders and Swann: At the Drop of a Hippopotamus.

The Rolls Royce of Flanders and Swann shows is back on the road in 2006. Dates are coming in thick and fast and will appear here first. Infinite Number of Monkeys have teamed up with acclaimed West End producers TEG to make the Evening of Flanders and Swann - At the Drop of a Hippopotamus even better. Tim FitzHigham and Duncan Walsh Atkins return to bring back the mayhem of Flanders and Swann.

The Masters of 1950's and 1960's madness, mayhem and total silliness are paid affectionate tribute to in this evening of their words and music. Michael Flanders and Donald Swann toured the globe bringing laughter and song to millions. Mud, Mud Glorious Mud (The Hippopotamus Song), The Gnu Song, Madeira M'dear, The Gasman Cometh, and many of their other songs have passed into legend along with their anarchic sense of humour, wordplay and fun.

In 2001, the show began in a small theatre in Sussex. 2003, the show played five summer music festivals and one show for an Earl; all shows sold out. 2004 the show completed its first mamoth tour of the UK and the album "At the Drop of a Hippopotamus" was released as a limited edition. Both the shows and the album sold out. In 2005 this show embarked on the largest Flanders and Swann tour since Flanders and Swann toured in the 1960's. The show played to the largest Flanders and Swann audience since the audience at the Fortune Theatre in the 1950's. The album was re-released and again sold out. This tour finished with Tim and Duncan headlining at the International Flanders and Swann Festival in Donald Swann's House (in Battersea, naturally), where Duncan played the songs on Swann's piano and Tim drank madiera from Micheal's famous Maderia decanter.

How did Infinite Number of Monkeys get involved?

In September 2001, two of the Monkeys team - Duncan Walsh Atkins and Tim FitzHigham - were asked to help raise money for a small cottage hospital in Sussex. They put together an evening of Flanders and Swann. They have both loved the songs since being small children - The Gnu Song is the first thing Tim can remember apart from swallowing paint.

With nothing but generous support from the estates of Michael Flanders and Donald Swann "An Evening of Flanders and Swann - At the Drop of a Hippopotamus" is the result. As Michael was the first to suggest, their songs were - and are - not sung nearly enough. At the Drop of a Hippopotamus is an attempt to redress this and an attempt by Duncan's wife to re-dress him in a smart suit.

Critic's Choice in The Sunday Times, The Guardian, and The Evening Standard.

"Wallowing in a Muddy Marvellous Revival. Wheelchair using vocalist Flanders and bright eyed pianist Swann have both now gone to the great loose ends broadcast in the sky but whippersnappers Tim FitzHigham and Duncan Walsh Atkins are flying the flag with this winning celebration. The songs remain masterfully comic compositions...if you think Eminem is the last word in lyrical dexterity listen to FitzHigham - a younger, sexier Richard Stilgoe - wrap his tonsils around Flanders' tongue-tangling Have some Maderia M'dear. This unashamedly retro revue will not change your voting habits hoewever for admirers of cabaret with impecable manners these Swann songs certainly fit the bill" - Bruce Dessau, Evening Standard

"chaps don't have to play rugger any more and Nigel Molesworth's "gurls" are running the show but there's still plenty of vim in the songs of Flanders and Swann. Tim FitzHigham sports and impressive beard, while the bespecatled Wlash Atkins submits to suave teasiing over his preference for living in the lower depths (known to most of is as Battersea)." - Clive Davis, The Times

"At the Drop of a Hippopotamus captures their (Flanders and Swann's) astute wit and delight in ingenuous wordplay - a great british tradition" - The Guardian

"Marvellous. One enchanted evening" - The Express

"energy and relish...caught the period remarkably well...Well worth seeing" - Laurence Hughes, The Independent

"Tim FitzHigham accompanied with panache at the keyboard by Duncan Walsh Atkins..." - The Scotsman