Marcel Stellman Explained

Marcel Leopold Stellman (15 February 1925 – 2 May 2021) was a Belgian born British record producer and lyricist. Among the many artists who recorded Stellman’s songs are Cilla Black, Petula Clark, Charles Aznavour, the Shadows and Tony Bennett.^{[1] [2]} In the UK he is best known as the man who brought the French show Des chiffres et des lettres to the UK as Countdown.^[3] His pseudonyms as a lyricist include Gene Martyn and Leo Johns.^[4]

Stellman was born in Antwerp, Belgium, one of 11 children.^[5] His mother, Lily, was Scottish and his father, Willy Stellman, was a Belgian Jew. In 1938, his father took him to his uncle Leopold’s jazz club, where he saw Louis Armstrong perform.

His father died of natural causes when he was young and five of his siblings were killed in Nazi death camps. However, his mother, who was Scottish, escaped the German invasion of Belgium in 1940 with the 14-year-old Marcel and settled in Glasgow.^[6]

Stellman's long association with the BBC began in the 1940s and 50s when he presented schools and children's radio programming. In the 1960s he worked on a television series for children featuring Pinky and Perky, two singing puppet pigs. In the 1980s he stood in for Alan Dell, presenting 'Sounds Easy' on BBC Radio 2.^[7]

He died on 2 May 2021 at the age of 96.^[8] The episode of Countdown broadcast on 4 May 2021 was dedicated to him.

Stellman won an Ivor Novello Award for the lyrics he wrote for the Shadows instrumental "Dance On!", which was a hit for Kathy Kirby in 1963.^[5] He also wrote the English lyrics to the songs Tulips from Amsterdam and Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht (Marble Breaks and Iron Bends).

Notes and References

1. Trevor Hill Over the Airwaves: My Life in Broadcasting 2005 - Page 230 "It was Marcel Stellman, one of the managers of Decca records, who put 'Pinky and Perky' on the road to television acclaim"
2. John Coldstream Dirk Bogarde: The authorised biography 1780221746- 2011 Just reach for Dirk Bogarde's Lyrics for Lovers, on which the actor inhales audibly on his cigarette before reciting Ira Gershwin's “A Foggy Day” amid a swathe of violins. Then there are the good records.'45 All 499 of them. The origins of this felony against musical taste lay in an approach by Marcel Stellman, who was in charge of the international division at Decca. 'I used to go to the cinema and watch his terrible Rank movies,' he recalls. 'I thought, “This is a man that the women like ...
3. News: . Countdown WILL go on ... insists Channel 4. "Earlier Marcel Stellman, the Belgian record executive who first brought the programme to Britain from France, ... said: 'I control the format and without the format there is no show. 'I am upset for Carol, more than that. This is a person I have known for 26 years who started Countdown. 'If I am Mr Countdown, she is Mrs Countdown."
4. Web site: Artist: Marcel Stellman - SecondHandSongs. secondhandsongs.com.
5. News: Leigh . Spencer . Marcel Stellman obituary . 2022-06-18 . The Guardian . 2021-05-11.
6. News: Marcel Stellman obituary . 2022-06-18 . The Times . 2021-05-18 . subscription.
7. https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/95ad61d414a541778cb354fdac55f975 BBC Genome: Pinky and Perky's Pop Parade
8. News: Davies . Hannah J. . Marcel Stellman, creator of daytime TV classic Countdown, dies aged 96 . 2022-06-18 . The Guardian . 2021-05-04.