The composer of the British standard "Maybe It's Because I'm a Londoner," Hubert Gregg was also an actor, novelist, and broadcaster. Born July 19, 1914 in London, he later attended the Webber-Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art, subsequently appearing in a series of roles for the Birmingham Repertory Company, the Old Vic and the Open Air Theater. In 1937 Gregg was tapped to star in French Without Tears, which debuted on Broadway before beginning a two-year run in London's West End -- during World War II, he served as an officer with the 60th Rifles, and during his military stint began writing songs, composing "I'm Going to Get Lit Up (When the Lights Go Up in London)" for musical comedy star Hermione Gingold in 1940. With the outcome of the war still in grave doubt, Gingold refused to perform the song -- only in 1943 was it recorded by Billy Cotton & His Band, when according to Winston Churchill the song was used as a broadcast signal to the Resistance that the invasion of Europe was under way. In the interim, Gregg made his feature film debut in David Lean's 1941 classic In Which We Serve, and served as a military radio broadcaster. In 1944 he wrote "Maybe It's Because I'm a Londoner" -- popularized by Bud Flanagan during a four-year run in the West End revue Together Again, the song is a certifiable pub classic that has been performed by everyone from Danny Kaye to Davy Jones. In 1951, Gregg published his first novel, April Gentlemen, and that same year he directed the stage adaptation of Agatha Christie's The Hollow -- two years later, he helmed the theatrical version of Christie's The Mousetrap, an experience that later generated the 1980 memoir Agatha Christie and All That Mousetrap. He returned to the big screen in the classic Alexander Mackendrick comedy The Maggie, and although he continued writing the occasional song -- most notably "Elizabeth," penned in honor of the Queen's 1952 coronation -- Gregg's focus gradually turned increasingly towards full-scale stage musicals, and in 1962 his Three Men in a Boat was broadcast on the BBC Light Programme. Beginning in 1970, he began appearing in a one-man stage production based on his career, and in 1972 he also began hosting the BBC Radio 2 program Thanks for the Memory, a position he held until his death on March 29, 2004. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi