Samuel Gabriel 'Sam' Costa (17 June 1910 - 23 September 1981) was a singer and a voice actor on the show Much Binding In The Marsh. He was also a Radio Luxembourg and BBC disc jockey.

[edit] Life

Costa, of Portuguese ancestry (Costa is a Portuguese surname), was descended from the banker Moses da Costa. He married Esther Comer, and they were married for over 40 years until he died in 1981. He was the great uncle of the radio presenter Andy Jacobs.

[edit] Career

Sam Costa began as a pianist with Bert Firman's band and later became a popular band singer in UK in the 1930s making many records with bands such as Lew Stone, Harry Leader, Maurice Winnick and Jay Wilbur.

After his crooning days his BBC Light Programme radio fame began in the ITMA shows with Tommy Handley, then he worked with Kenneth Horne, Richard Murdoch and Maurice Denham in Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh. On Sundays he did both Breakfast Time and Glamorous Nights and he also presented Housewives' Choice and Midday Spin, transitioning into BBC Radio 2 from 1967. Costa would sign off saying "Thank you for the pleasure of your company".

He didn't like TV work much, but did appear on several Juke Box Jury shows.

On BBC Radio 2 he had various shows, morning, lunchtime, afternoon, drivetime, into the late 1970s.

[edit] References

• Obituary, Jewish Chronicle, 2 October 1981

• R2OK! Radio 2 Preservation Society and Radio 2 Timeline Project (2007)[1]
• This England's Second Book of British Dance Bands (2001).
• British Dance Bands On Record 2nd Ed. (1989) by Brian Rust and Sandy Forbes.

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