Anton DOLIN (1904-1983)

Anton Dolin This Is Your Life

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
  • Filmed tribute:
  • 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...

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

Anton Dolin This Is Your Life Anton Dolin This Is Your Life Anton Dolin This Is Your Life Anton Dolin This Is Your Life Anton Dolin This Is Your Life Anton Dolin This Is Your Life Anton Dolin This Is Your Life Anton Dolin This Is Your Life Anton Dolin This Is Your Life Anton Dolin This Is Your Life Anton Dolin This Is Your Life Anton Dolin This Is Your Life

Screenshots of Anton Dolin This Is Your Life

Alicia Markova biography

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

Richard Beckinsale | Peter Ustinov | Virginia Wade | Robert Arnott | Lin Berwick | Bob Paisley | The Bachelors | David Broome
Arthur English | Barry Sheene | Margot Turner | Pat Coombs | Michael Croft | Max Boyce | Nicholas Parsons | Richard Goolden
Ian Hendry | Marti Caine | Ian Wallace | Dennis Waterman | Anton Dolin | Terry Wogan | William Franklyn | Richard Murdoch
Harry Patterson | Jule Styne | Mike Yarwood