Big Red Book

Celebrating television's This Is Your Life

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THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Beryl Grey, ballet dancer, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the London Festival Ballet's Donmar rehearsal studios in London's Covent Garden, having been led to believe she was being filmed for a documentary.

Beryl, who was born in Highgate, London, joined the Sadler's Wells School of Ballet in 1937 at the age of 10 after securing a scholarship with Dame Ninette de Valois. By the age of fifteen, she was starring in lead roles for the Sadler's Wells company.

As an international guest ballerina, Beryl became the first British artist to dance with the Kirov and Bolshoi Ballet in Russia in 1957, and later, in 1964, the first Western artist to appear with the Peking Ballet in China. In 1968, she became the artistic director of the London Festival Ballet.

"Oh Eamonn! Goodness gracious! Thank you very much! I'm absolutely overwhelmed!"

programme details...

• Edition No: 382
• Subject No: 383
• Broadcast date: Wed 10 Apr 1974
• Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
• Recorded: Wed 3 Apr 1974 7.00pm
• Venue: Euston Road Studios
• Series: 14
• Edition: 22

on the guest list...

• members of the London Festival Ballet
• Sven Svenson - husband
• Ingvar - son
• Arthur - father
• Ninette de Valois
• Joy Newton
• Ruben - brother-in-law
• Alicia Markova
• Audrey de Vos
• Maina Gielgud
• Merle Park
• Svetlana Beriosova
• Philip Chatfield
Filmed tributes:
• Rudolf Nureyev
• Madeline Sharp
• pupils of Madeline Sharp's Ballet Class for Young Ladies

related appearances...

• Elizabeth Twistington Higgins - Nov 1961
• Anton Dolin - Apr 1978
• Gillian Lynne - Feb 1989
• Alicia Markova - Oct 1995

production team...

• Researcher: Maurice Leonard
• Writer: Maurice Leonard
• Director: Royston Mayoh
• Producer: Malcolm Morris

• names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

A Dancer's Life

from ballet to ballroom

The Big Red Book

the programme's icon

Elizabeth Twistington Higgins: This Is Your Life

A profile of the ballet dancer

Ninette de Valois

Alicia Markova

Interviews

Beryl Grey recalls her experience of This Is Your Life in an exclusive interview recorded in October 2013

Photographs and screenshots of Beryl Grey This Is Your Life - and Beryl Grey photographed at her home with her big red book in October 2013