This Is Your Life: Zena Dare

Zena DARE (1887-1975)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Zena Dare, singer and actress, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the curtain call of the musical My Fair Lady at London's Drury Lane Theatre, from where the programme was then recorded.

Zena made her first professional stage appearance in 1899, in a London Christmas pantomime, Babes in the Wood, starring alongside her sister, Phyllis. In the first decade of the 1900s, she starred in various Edwardian musical comedy theatre productions, before retiring to nurse soldiers in France during the First Word War.

She returned to the stage in 1926, forming her own production company in 1928 and taking over the management of the Haymarket Theatre a year later. Zena also appeared in films, making the successful transition from silent films to talkies, while maintaining a flourishing theatrical career through the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

"It's all too much!"

programme details...

Edition No: 220
Subject No: 221
Broadcast date: Tue 26 Mar 1963
Broadcast time: 7.55-8.25pm
Recorded: Mon 11 Mar 1963
Venue: Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Series: 8
Edition: 25

on the guest list...

Muriel Pavlow
Grace Reed
Ellaline Terriss
James Stuart, Lord Stuart of Findhorn
Martin Lewis
Fay Compton
Roma Beaumont
Angela Thornton
Marie Cheyne
Antony Brett
Timothy Thornton
Brian Thornton
Vanessa Brett
Simon Brett
Mark Cheyne
Guy Thornton
Mollie Veness
James Turner
Alec Firman Orchestra
Oliver Brett, Lord Esher
Rex Harrison

production team...

Director: Vere Lorrimer
Producer: T Leslie Jackson

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

Life is a Cabaret

a musical theatre chorus line

Ellaline Terriss

Zena Dare and guest Ellaline Terriss on This Is Your Life

Series 8 subjects