After years of performing shows based on the traditional American songs of the 30s and yesteryear, jazz singer and BBC Radio 2 presenter Clare Teal has decided it is high time to celebrate some of the UK's leading writers with her new Great British Songbook Tour.

Many of the songs included are regularly assumed to be written by Americans, but actually had a lot of British involvement.

Examples of this home-grown talent include songs like Try A Little Tenderness by James Campbell and Reginald Connolly, Spread A Little Happiness by Vivan Ellis and Smile by comic legend Charlie Chaplin.

The show pays homage to material over an 80 year period and also features more modern classics such as The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Ewan MacColl and He Was Beautiful by Stanley Myers and Dame Cleo Laine.

Teal, who presents Big Band Special, Sunday Night at 10 with Clare Teal and Friday Night Is Music Night for Radio 2, says: "I've always known that some of these songs were British but have been amazed to find out just how many British writers have contributed to some of the world's best known songs.

"A further bit of digging turned up some fantastic lost gems that really deserve to be heard again and the idea for the show came together very quickly.

"The Great American Songbook is a wonderful body of work but I think people might be pleasantly surprised to find how much of it was contributed by the Brits."

Clare Teal, Epsom Playhouse, Wednesday, March 10, 8pm, £18.50 (£14.80), 01372 742555/742227, www.epsomplayhouse.co.uk