There are many things Americans struggle to understand about the English: our love of a cup of tea on a hot summer day, the rules of cricket, the concept of universal healthcare free at the point of delivery. To this list we can now add: a national obsession with a tiny parish council meeting gone wrong.
Andrew Lloyd Webber has said his friends in the US think he is “mad” after he created a song about Jackie Weaver, the heroine of the Handforth parish council meeting, which went viral last week.
The impresario has released an ode to the chief officer of the Cheshire Association of Local Councils, inspired by her cool handling of the chaotic Zoom meeting.
Talking to Good Morning Britain, Lloyd Webber said he composed the song while bored at the weekend. “It was just a laugh, I was doing nothing on a Sunday afternoon,” he said. The council meeting was “sort of operatic”, he added.
“At the moment the Americans think I’m stark raving mad because they heard this song. They are saying, ‘Who on earth is Jackie Weaver?’”
Lloyd Webber said a friend from New York had called him “and woke me up and said, ‘Who is Jackie Weaver?’ And I said, ‘Well, it’s a very British thing’.”
He joked at the prospect of turning the song into a West End musical: “You never know! People said Eva Perón (Evita) was a bad idea.”
Lloyd Webber released the song on Instagram, captioning it: “A song for Jackie Weaver, we all love you!”
The composer plays the piano and Carrie Hope Fletcher sings, with lyrics by Don Black. The chorus hails Weaver as “Britain’s answer to the American dream” and “the role model we all strive to be. She doesn’t want a medal, just a nice cup of tea.”
Weaver became an overnight internet sensation after she kicked the Handforth parish council chairman, Brian Tolver, off the Zoom call after he told her to “stop talking” and questioned her authority.
She has since appeared on BBC’s Woman’s Hour, been immortalised in cake and become the face of a dizzying array of merchandise, including T-shirts, mugs and greetings cards.