Flanders and Swann

Comic English musical duo from the 1940s to the 1960s. Mark Kermode believes that out of all the famous duos, Flanders and Swann is the one that he and Simon Mayo most resemble. Simon approved of this assessment, describing them as "a noble thing to be."

Their song about a gnu who takes lodgings at Rustington-on-Sea is a favourite of Simon Mayo's, Rustington being close to where he spent a number of his formative years.

Simon pondered playing A Song Of Patriotic Prejudice, before deciding against it and just reading part of the lyrics:

And crossing the Channel, one cannot say much

Of French and the Spanish, the Danish or Dutch

The Germans are German, the Russians are red, And the Greeks and Italians eat garlic in bed...