Oliver! writer Lionel Bart ‘pinched’ tunes

Rowan Atkinson is currently winning rave reviews for his portrayal of Fagin in the new West End production of Oliver!, which has taken more than £15m in advance bookings. Because of this, attention has focused once more on the show's composer, the late Lionel Bart, and whether he was entirely responsible for all of the hit musical's famous tunes, among them Consider Yourself and Oom-Pah-Pah.

Joan Clark, a director at the Unity Theatre in Camden where Bart worked prior to his success with Oliver!, maintained up until her death that the lyrics to the songs had in fact been written by her, and that Bart had never credited her.

Now Rita Wagland, who once lived in a flat above Bart’s – she would hear him playing versions of numbers from Oliver! on his piano – claims that the musical company of the Unity Theatre had written many of the numbers collectively for their musical revues years earlier. In addition to this, Wagland says that he didn't write Living Doll, the song made famous by Cliff Richard.

"Living Doll wasn't written by Lionel. It was written by some young musician lads at the Unity Theatre who used to accompany the shows. They never saw a penny," she tells the London newspaper, the Camden New Journal. "Lionel pinched a lot of stuff, but you could never dislike him despite all that. There was something about him."
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