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Michael Flanders (1922-1975) and Donald Swann (1923-1994) were two of the finest British comedians of their day. Their medium was cabaret; Swann was a gifted pianist, composer, and linguist and Flanders a talented raconteur and lyricist with a sharp eye for satire. Meeting at school, Flanders and Swann first performed a revue together in 1940, although this was not the beginnings of their partnership; Flanders aspired to be an actor. During the second World War, Swann served in the ambulance corps and Flanders in the British Navy. Not long after the war, Flanders contracted polio and was confined to a wheelchair. In the early '50s, Flanders and Swann began writing together again, but mostly for other performers. In 1956, they presented their first revue of their own songs, At the Drop of a Hat. The revue first played at the New Lindsey Theatre in London, but soon moved to a larger theater (the Fortune), where it played continuously for two years until 1959. They took the Hat revue on t...