Mike Waterson's last song

An August Bank Holiday Lark draws on those traditions. Remarkably rehearsals have been divided equally between work on the text and Conrad Nelson's work on the music and dancing.

Barry Rutter writes, "My friend, the late great Mike Waterson, was one of the doyens of English folk. I met him when he was dying and I said, ‘Do you want to write me a song for 2014?'. He said, ‘I won't see 2014 – I'm dying.'

I said, ‘I know you are, but I'd like you to write a Rushcart Song.' So he wrote it and recorded it with Eliza Carthy, Norma Waterson and Martin Carthy in their studio in Robin Hood's Bay. Conrad's taken that song and incorporated it into the play.