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Roger Joseph McGough (; born 9 November 1937) is an English poet, performance poet, broadcaster, children's author and playwright. He presents the BBC Radio 4 programme Poetry Please, as well as performing his own poetry. McGough was one of the leading members of the Liverpool poets, a group of young poets influenced by Beat poetry and the popular Beat music and culture of 1960s Liverpool. He is an honorary fellow of Liverpool John Moores University, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and President of the Poetry Society. The Poetry Society – accessed 24 July 2009
In 1971 GRIMMS was formed, originally as a merger of the Scaffold, the Bonzo Dog Band and the Liverpool poets. Group member Neil Innes said about the formation of the group: "I don't know what attracted the Scaffold to the Bonzos; we were incredibly anarchic, which was probably something shared by the Scaffold as well."Bowen, Phil. (2008) A Gallery to Play to: The Story of the Mersey Poets. Liverpool University Press. pp.104–106.
One of McGough's early poems, Let Me Die a Youngman's Death (but not, as the poem states, before the poet reaches 73, 91 or 104 years of age), was included in a BBC anthology of the British nation's hundred favourite poems.Bowen, Phil., (2008) A Gallery to Play to: The Story of the Mersey Poets. Liverpool University Press. p. 67 McGough has been nicknamed "the patron saint of poetry" by Carol Ann Duffy.
Philip Larkin included McGough's poetry in The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse, which he edited in 1973. Writing to McGough in 1980, Larkin congratulated him on the well-thumbed state of the copies of his books in Hull University's library, when compared to Larkin's own.McGough, Said and Done, p. 97
Possibly his shortest, most memorable and overtly political poem, was entitled "Conservative Government Unemployment Figures". The text of poem repeats the words of the title, with layout and punctuation resulting in an arch critique.McGough,Collected Poems, p. 182 The poem was referenced in a parliamentary debate in the House of Commons in 2004.House of Commons Hansard Debates for 1 Dec 2004 (pt 35)
The poetry of McGough has been the subject of academic study. It has been characterised, at least from its early examples, as being reliant on play with words and their meanings. It has also been noted to exhibit a stylised wit, and, at times, a sadness based on themes of lost youth, unfulfilled relationships, and the downside of city life. The form of some of his verse, it has been claimed, has been influenced by his experience of writing song lyrics.Booth, Martin (1985) British Poetry 1964–1984: Driving Through the Barricades. Routledge, pp. 138–139 A major critical examination of McGough's poetry, by American academic Ben Wright, was published in 2006. The author's stated aim was "to examine and evaluate the accessibility of Roger McGough's message to a wide, general readership, as well as appraising it by the most rigorous literary standards". McGough's popularity, commercial success, use of humour, and the lack of pretension of his verse has tended to restrict appreciation of his work as "serious poetry". Wright's study challenges this under-appreciation.Wright, Ben, Allan (2006) The Poetry of Roger McGough: The Liverpool Renaissance. Edwin Mellen Press.
On 2 March 1978, McGough appeared in All You Need Is Cash, a mockumentary detailing the career of a Beatles-like group called the Rutles. Interviewed by Eric Idle, the introduction of McGough takes so long that he is only asked one question, "Did you know the Rutles?" to which McGough cheerfully responds "Oh yes", before the documentary is forced to move along to other events. In 1980 he recited a high-speed one-minute version of Longfellow's poem "The Wreck of the Hesperus", complete with sound effects, on the album Miniatures produced by Morgan Fisher.
One of McGough's more unusual compositions was created in 1981, when he co-wrote an "electronic poem" called Now Press Return with the programmer Richard Warner for inclusion with the Welcome Tape of the BBC Micro home computer. Now Press Return incorporated several novel themes, including user-defined elements to the poem, lines which changed their order (and meaning) every few seconds, and text which wrote itself in a spiral around the screen. BBC [pdf] bbc.nvg.org He contributed poetry to and narrated a programme in 1991 for Channel 4 called Equinox: The Elements about the chemical element. He made a guest appearance on quiz panel show QI in 2006.
Three plays written by the 17th-century French playwright Molière have been translated by McGough and directed by Gemma Bodinetz. Tartuffe premièred at the Liverpool Playhouse in May 2008 and transferred subsequently to the Rose Theatre, Kingston.Philip Key, Tartuffe, Roger McGough, Liverpool Playhouse, Liverpool Daily Post (15 May 2008) The Hypochondriac ( The Imaginary Invalid) was staged at the Liverpool Playhouse in July 2009. The Misanthrope was staged at the Liverpool Playhouse in February–March 2013 before touring with the English Touring Theatre.
McGough has also done some voiceover work narrating The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Stories by Eric Carle, and TV advertisements for the supermarket chain Waitrose. "Waitrose shifts focus with price-led ads," Marketing Magazine, UK, 2 June 2009
He is a patron of Barnes Literary Society. In 2019 he became the President of Arts Richmond for one year.
He holds an honorary MA from Nene College of Further Education, and honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) degrees from the University of Hull (2004), Roehampton University (2006), and the University of Liverpool (2006). He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2004.
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