This Is Your Life: Anton Dolin

Anton DOLIN (1904-1983)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Anton Dolin, ballet dancer and choreographer, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews while taking a class at the Royal Academy of Dance in London.

Anton was the first English dancer to become a principal dancer with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1924, having joined the company in 1921 following his training at the London based Russian Ballet School. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s Anton was instrumental in bringing ballet to West End revues and pantomimes.

As a principal with Ninette de Valois' fledgling company, the Vic-Wells Ballet, he danced with Alicia Markova, with whom he went on to found the Markova-Dolin Ballet and the London Festival Ballet.

"It's a good thing you're good looking, otherwise I'd kill you!"

programme details...

Edition No: 488
Subject No: 486
Broadcast date: Wed 12 Apr 1978
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Wed 5 Apr 1978
Venue: Euston Road Studios
Series: 18
Edition: 21
Code name: Plus

on the guest list...

John Gilpin
John Perry
John Curry
Alicia Markova
Antony - brother
Louise - sister-in-law
Suzanne - niece
Tony - nephew
Mike - nephew
Philip - nephew
Grace Cone
Ninette de Valois
Antoinette Sibley
Anthony Dowell
Jessie Matthews
Florence Desmond
Prof Eivend Thomasen
Beryl Grey
Michael Somes
Wayne Sleep
Lynn Seymour
Maina Gielgud
Alfreda Thorogood
David Wall
Maris Liepa
Princess Antoinette Of Monaco
Evelyn Laye

production team...

Researchers: Maurice Leonard, Lavinia Warner
Writers: Tom Brennand, Roy Bottomley
Directors: Royston Mayoh, Terry Yarwood
Producer: Jack Crawshaw

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

A Dancer's Life

from ballet to ballroom

Anna Meadmore, curator of The Royal Ballet's White Lodge Museum, recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in an exclusive interview recorded in April 2013

Screenshots of Anton Dolin This Is Your Life

Former This Is Your Life researcher and production associate Maurice Leonard recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book Markova: The Legend, reproduced here with kind permission of the author...

I first met Markova on 31 March 1974. At the time I was working for Thames Television's This Is Your Life programme and researching a 'life' on Anton Dolin, Markova's dancing partner. I was about to ask her to come on his show.

They were a distinguished couple whose lives were so intertwined that at times they seemed as one. Many of their fans suspected a romance between them, and hoped for it.

They coursed along brilliantly and sometimes stormily, all their lives, always, in their brilliant ways, caring for each other.

She had met him when she was a child of ten, a professional even then, and billed as 'The Child Pavlova'. He was seven years older and a student. He became a star before her.

I was walking into a potential minefield by asking Markova to appear on Dolin's life. Her own This Is Your Life had been broadcast by the BBC in 1959 and Dolin had been conspicuous by his absence. He had refused to have anything to do with it. He had thought he should be the subject and was jealous. Such temperament was nothing new for the great Dolin, his arrogance matched only by his talent. On this occasion he felt affronted.

It would have been inappropriate to have had Dolin as a subject before Markova. By then she was by far the more durable star. Try explaining that to Dolin.

Markova had been curious as to why Dolin has not appeared on her 'life', but she had known him for over forty years and, helped by a few hints from colleagues, it did not take long for the penny to drop. I was well aware of this when I called to interview her.

She willingly agreed to come on Dolin's show. Had she decided to play tit for tat I would have been in trouble as we could not have done Dolin's 'life' without Markova. It would have been incomplete. She never mentioned the fact that he had not appeared on hers.

Series 18 subjects