Anthony Newley Follow

Typically English

Music and Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley

Evie sings:

My mother said I never should
Play with the young men in the wood.
If I did, she would say
'Naughty little girl to disobey!'
Stop it!

I'm a typically English rosebud
Born of typically English stock
With a typically Anglo-Saxon family tree.

Littlechap: You can tell, can't you?

I received my education
In a typically English way
At a typically English Girls' Academy.

Littlechap: I went to Brixton Reformatory for Boys meself.

I play typically English tennis
At a typically English club
With a typically English feeling for fair play.
I eat typically English crumpets
With my typically English tea
At the end of every typically English day.

Littlechap: That's funny! We only had fish and chips.

Father is a typically English colonel,
Home is a typically English county town.

Littlechap: Somewhere near Swindon.

Mummy and I play typically English patience
While the typically English rain is pouring down.

We've a typically English spaniel
Who likes typically English walks
Past the typically English trees upon the heath.
And if anyone asks me how I like
This typically English life,
I am fed up to my typically English teeth.

Littlechap sings:

My mother said I never should
Play with the girlies in the wood
If I did, she would say
They'll only end up in the family way.

Evie continues:

When I go to typically English dances,
Mother gives me typically sound advice:
How to cope with typically coarse advances,
But I'm bound to confess I find them rather nice!
Stay there.

In the typically English summer
We take typically English trips
To a typically seaside place with Auntie Maude;
And if anyone asks me how I like
This typically English life,
I have never been so - Pygmalion bored!

And if anyone asks me how I like
This typically English life,
I have never been ...

Evie and Littlechap do the hand mime; he leads her offstage. The chorus chants:

Here is a special announcement. There was an accident in a bedsitting-room off the
Brompton Road late last night when a seventeen-year old girl was involved in a
head-on collision with a twenty-five year old tea boy, and received injuries from
which her typically English family may never recover. Will anyone who saw the
accident, or can give any information, please keep it to themselves.

Littlechap and Evie return. Evie sings:

When a typically English rosebud
Is in typically English bloom
And her typically English petals open wide
Then her typically English perfume
Reaches typically English bees
And what follows is really most undignified!

Littlechap sings:

My mother said I never should
Play with the girlies in the wood.
If I did, she would say
They'll only end up in a most undignified,
Somewhat magnified,
Slightly stupefied,
Maybe multiplied,
Quite unqualified,
None too sanctified,
Highly satisfied way.