Richard Stilgoe has spent fifty years as a performer and writer in all forms of the performing arts. On television, he appeared on Nationwide, That’s Life and several series of his own. On stage, he toured for many years 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 and music and lyrics for Bodywork, Brilliant the Dinosaur, Orpheus—the Mythical and Road Rage. His broadcasting work has earned him the New York Radio Festival Gold Award, three Monaco Festival Prizes and the Prix Italia. Richard sits on various boards involved in music education. In 1997 he founded the Orpheus Centre in Surrey, where young disabled people prepare for independent living through a series of performing arts courses. He was High Sheriff of Surrey in 1998, during which year he was awarded the OBE. He owns and drives a JCB digger, and has five children and twelve grandchildren, none of whom told him he was going to be the subject of This is Your Life in June 2001. In the Jubilee honours list of 2012 Richard was knighted for charitable service through the Alchemy Foundation.
