FACTUAL
10 December 2005
Saturday 10 December 2005 20:00-21:00 (Radio 4 FM)
Using the beautiful music of Ivor Novello and the wonderful wit of Noel Coward, Kit Hesketh Harvey traces the story of their intertwined careers.
When they first met in 1917, Noel Coward was 'mad' about Ivor Novello and aspired to achieve the same glamorous lifestyle. The two became great friends and seven years later, Noel too made it to the rarified atmosphere of fame, fortune and stardom.
Anecdotes by colleagues and friends such as Lord Louis Mountbatten, Sir John Gielgud, Lord Attenborough and Sir John Mills, reveal parallels and differences in their careers and personalities and point to why it might be that, while Noel Coward's plays are still filling theatre houses, posterity has not been so kind to Ivor Novello.
