Mistletoe Bough
Date: 12/07
I agree with Jon when he calls this, “A brilliantly gruesome number, sung by the wonderful Will Noble at the Royal. We also did this with Bellowhead for the BBC 4 Christmas show – may be still on i-player?” Not on the i-player, but some naughty person seems to have put the whole thing on YouTube in six segments and you’ll find the first of them here, which will then give you the rest of it as well. You can of course watch it on BBC4 this Friday evening as Muzza has already pointed out. I went, all dressed up, but was clearly deemed too ugly for the cameras. Anyway, this Wiki page seems to be quite specific about a song sheet (or broadside) from the 1830s and the link at the bottom of the page would suggest a match. I note that this looks like one of those popular tales that’s done the rounds, with lots of venues claiming the true event that inspired it.