Richard Digance is known as one of the great folk entertainers of the 70's and 80's. His evergreen career has been acknowledged through numerous awards within both the music and entertainment industries, from a BAFTA Nomination as a TV entertainer to a Gold Award from The British Academy of Composers and Songwriters. He has supported Steve Martin in the USA, Robin Williams at The London Palladium and is included in The Virgin Anthology of Songwriters for his important contribution to British comedy songwriting. When presented with the Gold Award from the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters he was described as someone who for half a century has travelled the world with just a guitar and an immense collection of stories gathered through his own experiences. That kind of says it all.

It was Dennis Norden on the ITV programme '30 years of Comedy' who said that Richard Digance trod a unique and dangerous path, telling stories like no other without taking the obvious tried and tested gag route. Richard Digance is indeed unique. Name another performer who appeals to all age groups by singing his own songs, telling fun stories, whilst throwing in his popular poems and legendary audience participation sing-songs for good measure.There is no-one else like Richard Digance, he does indeed tread a unique and dangerous path without competitors. But it's on stage Richard is most comfortable, giving two hours of original material with just a guitar, no support acts, no gimmicks, just one man with a treasure chest of stories collected over 35 years in the entertainment industry.
As a poet Richard's works are included in The Oxford University Press anthology of British Poetry, used in the Feardon Teaching Aids publications in the United States and as English Literature syllabus material in British Columbia, Canada.

He has survived all trends with his two and a half hour one-man show, his summer festival appearances in the UK, the United States, Canada and Dubai, his cruise work and television appearances.He is both an accomplished musician, rated by many as one of Britain's greatest acoustic guitarists, inspired by his good friend Ralph McTell, and an entertainer who many younger comedians claim as one of their major influences. Garry Bushell, in The Sunday People, listed Richard Digance as one of the Magnificent Seven of British Comedy along with the likes of Tommy Cooper and Bob Monkhouse, a wonderful tribute indeed. On his own ITV Saturday-night show Richard has played guitar with Queen's Brian May, The Moody Blues, Status Quo, Chris deBurgh, Juan Martin, Marc Cohn and Elkie Brooks.

Richard Digance gained a BAFTA Nomination for TV Entertainer Of The Year in the late 1980s and in 2003 received the Gold Award from The British Academy of Composers and Songwriters for his services to live music. He is one of Britain's top comedy and music attractions, a rare performer in that he's respected by comedians for his original material and by musicians for being an accomplished acoustic guitarist. His loyal following confirms his wide appeal, from the younger generation attracted by both his guitar playing and the fact he has inspired many modern-day performers, to the super-loyal who have followed Richard since the time he had his own ITV series and even further when he started out in folk clubs. He is listed in the Virgin Encyclopedia of Music and his poems are used as teaching aids by Fearon Publications in the USA and by The University of British Columbia in Canada. In recent years he has built a further following through his regular appearances on Channel 4s Countdown.

However, Richard Digance does not rest on his immense reputation. In the last two years he has broadened his appeal, firstly by proving to be one of Britains most sought after cruise entertainers and secondly by returning to his musical roots through major festival appearances. His book Footynotes, written with Sky's Chris Kamara, reached the top 10 in WH Smith's best-sellers list in November 2008. He has worked with a multitude of world-class artists Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Roy Orbison, The Beach Boys, Elton John, Steeleye Span, David Essex, Jim Davidson, Supertramp, Elkie Brooks and Tom Jones. His TV specials for ITV ran for a record 11 years and on these shows he played guitar with Brian May, Status Quo, The Moody Blues, Buffy St Marie, Juan Martin, Marc Cohn who wrote Walking in Memphis and Chris de Burgh

ABOUT RICHARD DIGANCE

Richard Digance was born in West Ham, London on 24th February 1949. The family moved to Blaney Crescent, East Ham, shortly afterwards and it was in East Ham where he went to school, firstly at Vicarage lane Primary School and then to Thomas Lethaby Secondary Modern. He left school with only 4 GCE O'levels and so, realising the error of his ways, paid his way through night school, holding down 2 jobs at True Form shoe shop and as a shelf stacker at Safeways. He gained 2 A level passes in English Literature and Modern British History and moved to Glasgow where he went to Reid Kerr College in Glasgow.It was in Scotland he discovered folk music, becoming friends with John Martyn, which led to him returning home to London, becoming an animal ambulance driver with the PDSA whilst learning to play guitar to a decent standard.

He became influenced by Ralph McTell, now a dear friend, and he made his paid folk club debut at The Bus, Stratford, a compact folk club in a double decker bus, and then The Central, Barking Road, East Ham.

His parents, both from Canning Town, East London, are both deceased. His mother Doris had various jobs, his father Len worked as a lorry driver for Ford Motor Company in Dagenham. His mum bought him his first guitar, an Eko Jumbo, and he progressed to a Levin before buying his first sacred Gibson SJN. Richard now plays a Martin D28 on stage and a Takamini in his home recording studio.

Richard has two daughters, Polly and Rosie, and the three of them are a very close-knit unit. His sister Jill lives in Southend and his brother Leonard lives in Vancouver, Canade. Richard lives in Wiltshire, has a dog called Jess, loves going to pubs, fishing, painting and writing.

TELEVISION

Richard Digance began his TV career on Sound of The City for Thames TV, produced by Richard Newman, in the early 1970s. This debut appearance was followed by The Old Grey Whistle Test and then the Today programme. The Whistle Test was his only BBC TV appearance except for appearing on The Ronnie Corbett Show years later and then link-man for BBC2 coverage of The Cambridge Folk Festival. He then became a regular contributor on The 6 o'clock Show with Michael Aspel. He had to wait over a decade to be given his own show.

His first own TV Special was for Thames TV 'A Dabble With Digance' and featured newsreader Carole Barnes. After the success of this special he was signed to TVS in Southampton after being a studio warm-up act there for Matthew Kelly and this first series of six programmes screened on Thursday nights. He also filmed a pilot 'The Three Busketeers' featuring himself, Chris Barrie who went on to star in Red Dwarf, and Adrian Hedley. At this time he still continued as a studio warm-up act for The Des O'Connor Show. He was also appearing regularly on late night shows for Tyne Tees TV with Gillian Reynolds.

Richard left for London Weekend Television under Greg Dyke and filmed numerous Saturday night TV Specials for ITV. His guests included Brian May, Elkie Brooks, The Moody Blues, Marc Cohn, Buffy St Marie, Joe Pasquale, Juan Martin, Julia Fordham, Chris de Burgh and many others. An additional series with Jim Davidson 'Wednesday At 8' made him a popular guest during this period from 1985 to 1995. His guest-spots are almost endless Surprise Surprise with Cilla Black - The Gloria Hunneford Show - The Jim Davidson Show - Des O'Connor Show - Live From Her Majesty's - Live From Piccadilly - Summertime Special with Michael Barrymore - Live From The Palladium with Roy Orbison - The Comedians - Magpie - Celebrity Snooker and Fish o'Mania with Steve Davis - Pebble Mill At One - Saturday Night At The Mill - That's Entertainment with Kenny Everett and Julian Clarey - Crosswits - The Tom O'Connor Show - The Parkinson Show with Tommy Steele and many more. He received a BAFTA Nomination as TV Entertainer Of The Year.

Appearances on TV Specials included HRH The Prince of Wales Princes Trust Galas at The London Palladium with Elton John and Robin Williams - All At Sea, again before HRH The Prince of Wales - Christmas Eve Forces Special from The Berlin Wall - The Zeebrugge Disaster Concert at The London Palladium with Bernard Manning

In the next decade he made two series for Carlton Westcountry TV visiting villages in a Morris Traveller and using locals as guests. This took up two years and then he became a regular contributor on Channel 4's Countdown. He is the fifth most regular guest in the history of the show.

RADIO

Richard currently presents on BBC Radio Devon and his 2010 shows have proved to be a great success. Richard Digance began his radio career with the BBC Stop The World with Bernard Braden and then Francis Matthews was followed by numerous BBC series of his own including Animal Alphabet, The Richard Digance Show, Digance Does It Locally, again continuing the 'Down Your Way' trend of recording national radio shows in village halls. He worked for the BBC for 11 years before joining London's Capital Radio, firstly as a folk presenter and then a light night DJ on Midnight Special. His other series for Capital included Sunday Funday, R2D2 school quiz and as a special feature music interviewer during which he interviewed Arlo Guthrie, Joni Mitchell and other big names in music. He became a qualified radio producer at Elstree and began producing children's programmes for independent radio.

Ground-breaking and award winning documentaries, produced by Ralph Bernard, saw Richard Digance make his name as a soundtrack and musical contributor on serious programming, providing the incidental music, title music and song for top documentaries Dying For A Drink, Can Buy Me Love and Down To Earth. All three documentary series won Radio awards. For the BBC he wrote the music for a documentary on Sir Rowland Hill who created the Penny Black for the Royal Mail in the 19th Century. He also became a regular contributor on Start The Week and Newsquiz