Joanna Lumley Joins RADIO LIVE at Chichester Festival Theatre in January 2024

They're back! Five years after two sell-out shows, “RADIO LIVE” returns to Chichester Festival Theatre on Saturday 20 January 2024 for another two irresistible performances.

Very special guest and national treasure Joanna Lumley joins this unique group of seasoned radio pros who will take you behind the scenes of broadcasting in an unforgettable evening of comedy, music and wireless nostalgia.

Sir Richard Stilgoe composes comedy songs on the spot. Alistair McGowan does brilliant impressions of the greats, of course. Charlotte Green and Garry Richardson share inside stories from their lives on radio.  All together these presenters have been broadcasting on our airwaves for over two centuries!

Join them for a celebration of broadcasting filled with sparkling anecdotes, sketches and music spanning over the decades.

Tickets priced from £10-£30

Sir Richard Stilgoe has been a performer and writer for fifty years. On television he appeared on ‘Nationwide', ‘That's Life' and several series of his own.  On stage he toured 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'.  His broadcasting work earned him the New York Radio Festival Gold Award, three Monaco Festival Prizes and the Prix Italia. In 1997 he founded the Orpheus Centre in Surrey, where taking part in performing arts helps to prepare young disabled people for independent living. Richard was High Sheriff of Surrey in 1998, during which year he was awarded the OBE. In the Jubilee honours list of 2012 Richard was knighted for charitable service through the Alchemy Foundation.

Dame Joanna Lumley DBE is an English actress, former model, author and activist. She is the recipient of three BAFTA Awards, a Tony Nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play, the Special Recognition Award at the 2017 National Television Awards and the BAFTA Fellowship Award for her work on screen and stage. In her many stage appearances she has worked with Harold Pinter, Alan Ayckbourn, Trevor Nunn and Jonathan Miller. She played the legendary character Patsy Stone in Absolutely Fabulous until 2012 and stepped back into the role in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie in 2016. Her other film credits include On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Shirley Valentine, James and the Giant Peach, Ella Enchanted, The Wolf of Wall Street and Paddington 2 among many others; and on TV, The New Avengers, Sapphire and Steel, Coronation Street along with numerous travel documentaries which have her criss-crossing the globe. Lumley is also known as the 'daughter of Nepal' for her continuing work with the Gurkhas.

Alistair McGowan is a cherished household name, a master impressionist, stand-up comic, actor, pianist, and writer of sketches, articles, stage and radio plays, but is still probably best known to British audiences for 'The Big Impression' which for four years was one of BBC1's top-rating comedy programmes - winning numerous awards, including a BAFTA. In 2017 Sony Classical released 'Alistair McGowan; The Piano Album' which went to Number One in The Official Classical Charts and no 2 in the Classic FM chart and was John Brunning's Album of The Week. He followed that with a second piano album, now on release.

Garry Richardson: The BBC recently celebrated its centenary and Garry has been working for them for almost half that time. He's been appearing on the Today programme since 1981 and is the longest surviving member of the team. He's interviewed some of the world's most famous people, including Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali and Bill Clinton. Garry once worked alongside Hollywood legend Richard Burton and did a series of programmes on Morecambe and Wise, Dad's Army, Bernard Cribbins and Spike Milligan. A lifetime in broadcasting has given Garry a fund of hilarious anecdotes.

Newsreader Charlotte Green was once voted the nation's favourite voice in a Radio Times Poll and is one of the country's most recognisable and cherished voices. Famous for her warm tones, her diction and her poise, her fit of the giggles live on air made her a national treasure, with even Prince Charles thanking her for her “Impossibly infectious giggling”! With appearances on ‘News Quiz' and ‘The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', Charlotte is a great raconteur. She has written about her life in broadcasting in an autobiography, ‘The News is Read', available at all fine bookstores.

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