Sir Anton Dolin

Sir Anton Dolin0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.

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For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music, the programme was originally broadcast in 1982, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:31

Our castaway this week is a dancer and choreographer who's played an enormous part in the development of ballet in this country. It's Sir Anton Darlin.

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So so Anton, obviously a dancer is deeply dependent on music. Have you technical knowledge? Can you read music? Can you play an instrument?

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No, I I I wanted to play the piano. As a very small boy I was learning, but I afraid I didn't have the patience to with all those scales, etcetera. I I regret it now very much. No, I can more or less read a score. Yes. I wouldn't say a hundred per cent. But I know the crotchets and the quavers.

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Do you think just eight discs would help in that desert island predicament?

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Well, the eight that I'm taking would.

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What's the first one?

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The first one is going to be Richard Talbot.

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I heard Talbot when he first came to this country in the Land of Smile to Drury Lane. I was with very dear friends.

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And it's a marvellous memory for me. Then I heard him when he came to New York.

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when he sang the famous song that he's going to sing to day for me.

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I think he sang in about ten different languages Polish, Russian, Yiddish.

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He was a great linguist, and he loved displaying himself. He was a great show off Tower, which of course I loved too.

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and a wonderful, wonderful voice.

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Uh

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Fight my gun, sat.

Sir Anton Dolin1:49

But

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Bold it win.

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Oh me belong.

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My name is

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And a dormitory.

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Made it by child.

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Friday.

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But

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Uh

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Yeah.

Sir Anton Dolin2:31

Oh, that will be my meal.

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Richard Talbot, you are my heart's delight.

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What part of the country do you come from, Sir Anton? Do call me Anton. I like being called Sir Anton, but call me Anton. I'm going to call you Roy. Please. Is that right with you? No, of course. Good. I was born in Slinfold, which is very near Horsham, Sussex. That's where I was born. Your mother was Irish, your father English and I was in the city. I came from Lincolnshire.

Sir Anton Dolin3:07

To the

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I know you started in the theatre when you were very young. Where did the inspiration to perform come from? Were you taken to the theatre a lot as a child? Yep, my mother loved the theatre. There's no question that my mother loved the theatre not only dancing, but the theatre in general.

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We were living very near Bogner,'cause Felfam is is is practically a mile from Bogner, and a Danish dancer called M Karina

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Came to dance on the uh the pier at Wagner, and I remember going with my mother very well. She was very beautiful.

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I really think that in one way that the Danish dancer was my first inspiration of want to become a dancer. That was more important to you than acting. No, the most important thing to me was the theatre. Whether it was acting, singing or dancing, I didn't mind as long as I was on that stage showing myself. I loved showing myself. Did you start taking lessons early? Singing and dancing and acting, yes.

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Did you continue to live on the South Coast or near the South Coast right through your boyhood? No, we went just before the war broke out, we went to Brighton.

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My mother's father wanted her to come to look after him. He was very eccentric. He was bedridden for no reason at all. So we went to look after him in Lorna Road, Hove.

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And it was there that I had my very, very first dancing lesson.

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Gracie Cohn and Lily Cohn, who came every Friday to the Oddfellows Hall in Brighton. My mother read about it, took me there and I really had my first dancing lessons with them. Obviously you appeared in school productions. What was your first professional appearance? Well, my first professional appearance, of course, was Bluebell in Fairyland, the lovely play written by Seymour Hicks.

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and which is equally much lovelier wife, Blue Bell Blue Bellaline, as she called herself, Ellaline Terrace, was Bluebell. I was Peter the Black Cat. Two pounds a week. I didn't mind. It was my first job, and it was a marvellous play to be in. That was in London? At the Princess Theatre, which is now the Shaftesbury Theatre.

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And you played in Peter Pan for several the following three years I played it with Faye Compton, Faith Shelley, Georgette Cohen. I was very lucky because I think I in fact I know'cause I've I've verified on that.

Sir Anton Dolin5:06

Yes.

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I was the only John that played it for three years running'cause my voice didn't break.

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That's quite a distinction.

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Are you pleased?

Speaker 35:24

But if you like,

Sir Anton Dolin5:24

Yeah.

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You played the page in Sardou's Fedora? Yep. I played that as my last acting role as Patrick Kay. You were still, at that time, Patrick Kay. I was still Patrick Kay. Now, why did you change to the Russian-sounding Anton Donin? Was that because dancers had to be Russian? No. My teacher, wonderful teacher now, was a Russian, Astafyeva, who had that lovely building in the King's Road. Her studio was there. The façade I see is still there, the pheasantry. Yes. Well, that was her dancing school. And she was putting on a performance, or it was being put on for her, the Albert Hall. It was June the 23rd or the 24th, 1923.

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I chose the name Anton. I wanted to hoodwink the press. I wanted to become Russian. I wanted to sort of say, Well, you don't think anything of an English dancer. Now you're going to hear Russian. The man who put on the performance was a man called Shagin. He was Russian. He chose Dahlin.

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I said, but that's not Russian. He said, Oh, yes, it is. Very good day, Manth and Darling. I said, Oh, I do what you like.

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I wanted something much more Russian. And well, to cate a long story short, the next day I woke up and there were very good notices for me in the paper.

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And Yagliffe wrote to Astafieva and said, Who is this young Russian boy in your school you've been hiding from me? She wrote back and said, That's the same little boy that was with you nearly two years ago in the Sleeping Beauty in London at the Alambra Theatre, and he had changed my name he had changed it from Patrick Kay on the programme to Petrickieff.

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That was the name I first danced under. But Anthon Darlin, I chose the name really. You had begun in his company then in the Court of Balli. Yeah. He came to the school one day. I think he only wi really wanted some few dancers, boys, men, girls, if he could find them, really, to decorate the stage in those beautiful Bach's costumes. I was lucky again.

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Four dancers were needed for the first little waltz. There were only three available of the actual company. I was picked, and so I danced, and was not just a pretty little figure on the stage, if I can say that.

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Let's have your second record. What's that to be? My second record? Yes. One of the loveliest voices I ever heard in my life. Josie Collins, Maid of the Mountains, singing that wonderful song, Farewell.

Sir Anton Dolin7:45

Uh

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Fail

Speaker 37:57

Well, well, the old honeymoon!

Speaker 38:06

Yeah. Uh

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Oh, well I drew

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Uh Where white my footsteps raid?

Speaker 38:22

More coffee.

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Josie Collins in The Maid of the Mountains.

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So you went for the second time to the Dryagalev company, this time as a leading dancer.

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What was the first part you danced with the company? Well, my first leading part, after several roles in the Corder Balli, or several smaller roles, in November and December, was on the first of january, nineteen twenty four.

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when the ballet Deafness and Chloe was revived for me and for the other great, great English dancer, Lydia Sokolova. Now she had a Russian name given her by Diagny, but her real name was Hilda Munnings and her equally famous husband, Leon Wojikovsky, who danced the character role of D'Arcon.

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And I didn't realize it at the time, but to think here as a young boy, nineteen, still nineteen years of age, there conducting for me in in front of me I didn't realize it, I was much too imbued with my own importance. I it wasn't conceit, it was something, I dunno, it just happened to be there, not arrogance either, was the great Maurice Ravel himself.

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And I've chosen the solo that I danced, which was choreographed, re choreographed for me by Nizhinska, Nizhinski's sister, because the original choreography, a lot of it, had been forgotten.

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And I recreated that solo quite recently for Stephen Beagley of the Royal Bally, who did it on the programme for me.

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So this is the solo from the part you danced in. Well, it's one of the solos,'cause it was a very long roll. I had a lovely pas de deux with Sokolova and many mime scenes and dramatic scenes and, shall we say, scenes with the company.

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But this was the one of the solos that I did. From Daphnis and Chloe. Daphnis and Chloe.

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An excerpt from Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe, on this occasion conducted by Pierre Monteur with the London Symphony Orchestra.

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You also danced the very acrobatic leading part in the Blue Train. Well, that really was when I first danced in London. That was in November 1924. I danced it first, of course, in Paris.

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That, if I can say so, I've said it before, was really the role that brought me fame. It was a very acrobatic ballot.

Sir Anton Dolin11:36

Pause a video.

Sir Anton Dolin11:37

Yeah.

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You mentioned Ludhinsky doesn't know Dyaglev's former great leading dancer. Did you ever meet him?

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I met him, but I never saw him dance. I was a pallbearer at his funeral in nineteen fifty.

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I saw him on several occasions. One of the most moving occasions was when he came to watch a rehearsal of the of the Acrobatic Ballet that you just mentioned. We were rehearsing of the Mogador Theatre in Paris before its premiere in Paris.

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And he came through the door and watched this.

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Young man, I don't know what he thought about it, what he could have thought about it, turning cartwheels and backflips and somersaults and God knows what else. It was a very moving moment.

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Especially when

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Dzinska, his sister, was in the ballet with me, choreographing the ballet.

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She came over and she said, Anton, I can't, I ca I can't do any more. I can't. It's too terrible for me to see my brother sitting there. Does he understand anything that's going on? I wonder if he did understand mentally or in any sense of the word. But he watched it for a while, vacant eyes. Did he converse with you at all? Said a few words. I went with Jagliff to see him a little later.

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And

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He said very few words.

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What was the magic that Diagilev had? He could raise money, he could persuade the great painters of the day to design for him. He got the best dancers from all over the world.

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How did he work? I mean, was he a rich man personally? No, he had no money at all.

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No, Diaglif was brilliant intelligence, very cultured.

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And he had the most

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Tremendous charm. He was not good looking. He was a big, burly man.

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But he had that charm that could literally

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Charm a diamond out of a lump of coal.

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And when he wanted to use that charm, there was very little he couldn't get. And don't forget in those days

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Great painters like Picasso, like Anne Bachst, musicians like Millo, Poulin,

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Origin.

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It was a great canvas for them.

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To have a ballet commissioned by Diagliffe. Today, if you were to do it, you couldn't afford it. Who could afford a a decor by Baxter or Picasso? But for them it was a tremendous, shall we say, advertisement for their works. And also they worshipped Diagliffe as he worshipped them.

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How long did you stay with him?

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On and off until nineteen twenty nine. And then you started your own company. Well, I left in twenty five. My contract had ended.

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I was always a bit of a I wanted to be independent, shall we say.

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And I went off for about two, three years on my own from twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven.

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I had a company, with Nimchinova, with Phyllis Bedells,

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with Nina de Valois.

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at the London Coliseum, did many, many seasons there.

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Let's have another record. We got to...

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Number four Ads

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A wonderful record because that brings me back

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Oh, God, the memories that brings me back. It brings me back the memories of two most beloved people, Gertrude Lawrence,

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and Noel Card, and I think Noel Card taught me a

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great deal about the theatre. He was a brilliant wit, he was never unkind.

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And I think if ever I was cast away on a desert island,

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I would certainly love to listen to this record of Private Lives.

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What are you doing here?

Speaker 315:00

Uh

Speaker 315:01

I'm on my honeymoon.

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Uh

Speaker 315:02

Very interesting. So am I.

Speaker 315:04

I hope you're enjoying it. It it hasn't started yet.

Speaker 315:08

Neither is mine.

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Are you happy?

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Perfect list? Good.

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Are you

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Ecstatic rib.

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What you like?

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Here, very pretty.

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He plays the piano beautifully.

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Very accompanying.

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How's yours?

Speaker 315:25

I'd rather not discuss

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Noel Card and Gertrude Lawrence in Private Lives. You'll mention just now having been in the International Review in New York. In those days, of course, there was not enough ballet.

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For a dancer to be employed full time in classical ballet. So you have to do reviews, musical comedy.

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You were in a Jack Buchanan show for a long run, weren't you? I was. I loved that show.

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He was one of the nicest guys in the world. Had a wonderful year and year in three months. The only time I ever played golf, incidentally, was with Jack. He loved golf, and we were in Gleneagles every weekend when we were in Scotland.

Sir Anton Dolin15:50

He was.

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I was a lousy player, but it didn't matter. He liked to go round the course of the walking.

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The Camargo Society offered opportunities for young dancers, but that was only for odd matinees and and short runs. Well, we used to give four performances a year. They were nearly always at the Cambridge Theatre.

Sir Anton Dolin16:11

Well we

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But we did have a season in nineteen thirty two

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at the Savoy Theatre. That was when I had the chance of dancing my first Albrecht to the most incomparable Giselle of all time, Olga Spiciceva. And she did during that month, I think,

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Eight, maybe nine performances of Giselle, as well as about ten of Swan Lake Act Two, which in those days was unheard of.

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But that bridge the gap, shall we say, between

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After the death of Djagliffe and the forming of Saddler's Wells Bally, it's a really fine ballet company, and the Markov Dolan Bally, which together with Markover, we ran thirty five, six and seven.

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And you continue to give your seasons at the Coliseum quite recently. Not all yes, but with the Markova Dolin Ballet it was nearly always the Duke of York's Theatre or the King's Theatre, Hammersmith, which alas is also demolished now. You began when? With Markova? Yes. November the eleventh, Newcastle, nineteen thirty five. Oh, you've got that indelibly stampede. Well, it was it was an armistice day.

Sir Anton Dolin17:11

Well, it was it was

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It was the first performance of a marvellous ballet that Keith Lester did for me, called David, and it had a marvellous drop curtain that was designed and executed by Jacob Epstein, which, alas, was burnt or lost during the war. What a shame.

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Another record gives me

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Well, I'm going to choose, I think, one of the greatest opera singers of all time. I think she did more.

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to raise the standard of opera than any female opera singer has ever done is Maria Callas.

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I nearly chose Norma, but I'm choosing one of the lovely songs from Traviata.

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I was lucky because at my company festival ballet we were dancing in Chicago.

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But every Monday we were free and we were dancing around Chicago at that time.

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And the first two appearances that she made in America were at the Civic Opera House, Chicago. Monday night was Norma, which I went to.

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and the following Monday was Traviato.

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And that will remain in my memory all my life, or what life I have ahead of me.

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Maria Callis in Verdi's La Trabiata

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A performance conducted by Gabrielli Santini.

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You mentioned the formation of the London Festival Bally. That was an important landmark. Certainly it was. 1950, wasn't it?

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Forty nine to be exact, of they was called then Gala Performances, and it was finally called Festival Valley in nineteen fifty. And we had our first seasons of the Stoll.

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Wonderful company.

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I had great arguments with Brunswick about the dancers, who we'd have and who we hadn't.

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I was determined that if I was going to run that company, which I did for twelve years and dance all the leading roles, there had to be other fine male dancers in the company besides myself.

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I also let Markova know very clearly that there were two roles that I was not going to go on dancing very much longer one was Les Silphide, which I never really did enjoy, and the other was The Fairy Prince in the Nutcracker.

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I began to feel I'm no longer young enough to be a fairy prince. I like the other roles, Petrushka and Swan Lake and Albrecht and Giselle.

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And I found a dancer I saw a dancer in Paris, who I disliked immediately at the time, but I was asked to look him up by Marie Rombert, whose pupil he was, actually.

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and he was then dancing in Paris with the Roland Petit Company no, Marcus de Cuevas Company.

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And I asked John Terry's the ballet mouse if I want to.

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speak to the boy called John Gilpin. He was over there, he came over. But

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I was lunching at a hotel in Paris, the Royal Monceaux, with Anna Ricarda.

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and Brunswick, who was behind the ballet, the festival bally, was the brains behind it, the finance, if there was ever any finance.

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He said, Pat, we've got to make up our mind. I've had John Gilpin in to see me.

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If he doesn't join the company, there's a chance that he may go to the Royal Ballet.

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So I said, Give me half an hour to think about it. I went back, and Anna Ricardo it was, who said

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Oh, God, Pat, get him. He's a marvellous dancer. He dances the most wonderful sylphide, and the other day he replaced with Rosella Hightower.

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Andrey Glewski, who was ill in Barcelona, did the most wonderful nutcracker. I thought, Oh, well, that settles that sylpheden nutcracker will soon go away from me. So I called Windsley, I said, Get him.

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And that was the beginning of John Gilpin's career really as a big star dancer.

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What have been your most successful pieces of choreography? Lapsed in Blue, which I was the first to choreograph in Paris in twenty seven.

Sir Anton Dolin21:32

Paris

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Nightingale in the Rose adapted from the Oscar Wilde story which I did originally in twenty six for Vera Nemcinova.

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I suppose if I go down in history for any two great classic works.

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was many times that I've done Giselle all over the world. I've just recently been in Iceland producing it and directing it there. And the other was my own recreation of a lost bally for many, many years, The Paddy Cat, which I have done practically also everywhere. Another record, please.

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But you diamond shoes it was not a great success, Phil the Fluter. It was at the Palace Theatre.

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and I went principally for two reasons.

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I didn't go to see Stanley Baxter, who was the first star of the show, shall we say. I went to see Evelyn Lay, who I've adored for years, and an old friend of mine who was making really his first debut in London, in a leading part, Mark Winter. We were together, Mark and I, in in Coventry.

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in Robin Hood. It's the only first panem I've ever done.

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And

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I'll never forget that opening night.

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Even it lays entrance onto that stage.

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It brought a stand up ovation.

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She did this song, They Don't Make Them Like That Anymore.

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It was the most wonderful reception.

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But then y nobody, even today,

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Nobody can walk on that stage and make an entrance.

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As evening day, she's a star.

Speaker 223:04

I remember Cuthbert Sr. Used to sport a white gardener In his dove-grey morning coat he always wore.

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With his debonair top hat.

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And a pearl in his cravat.

Speaker 223:22

They don't make them like that anymore.

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Evelyn Lay in a number from Phil the Fluter.

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Now, Anton, you've written a number of very entertaining books about the Valley and very autobiographical. And uh there's now a picture book about your career. Obviously you're a hoarder. You you keep old photographs, old programmes.

Sir Anton Dolin23:44

Dub?

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Do you know, I didn't realize it until two years ago, when they came to me with this idea, Routledge, Keegan and Paul, and Andrew Weecroft, who compiled the book.

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To do this book I suddenly found I had cupboards full, albums full, of letters, photographs.

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And a great many of them are in that book.

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Actually, I think I've got enough for another three books. Oh, this is a a very handsome book. This is a lovely book, isn't it? Handsome book. Beautifully. Beautiful book. All I provided with the.

Sir Anton Dolin24:11

But it has to be

Sir Anton Dolin24:13

Before you range

Presenter24:16

You say that you didn't assemble these pictures. I do suspect that you wrote the captions or.

Sir Anton Dolin24:20

I wrote every capture.

Presenter24:22

I thought so. I think they're rather good. Yes, we haven't mentioned the name of the book. It's called Friends and Memories.

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That's your title? It was yes, that really was my title. The cover was not my idea. The cover was entirely Andrew Wheatcroft, and it's a marvellous cover.

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I know, I passed by the other day's shop. I was in a taxi, I even managed to see it in the window,'cause I look at every bookshop as I'm going through the streets of London these days.

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Well, of course you have a professional interest and. Well, I'm more than a professional interest. I just love seeing my photograph around everywhere. Well, who doesn't?

Sir Anton Dolin24:47

Well I'm on a professional

Presenter24:53

What are your other activities now? Y you've been over in Iceland. Well, at the end of July I'm going to Tokyo for the festival.

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I'm coming back?

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I shall be doing my one-man show, I think, in Monte Carlo, at the lovely new Princess Grace Theatre, the first week in August.

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And then

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I have a little rest. I want to get on with my book. I've got to finish this autobiography. Next to the last one. I've been on it for years.

Sir Anton Dolin25:13

It's not a bug.

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And then in October

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I'm going to do some lectures and some talks in Chicago, Alabama. Oh, will you? Obviously you're still racing about the globe.

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Yeah.

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Another record, number seven we've got to.

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She's a singer.

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that I have always adored. There are two great singers of that style to day in the world. One I heard a few weeks ago.

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Elizabeth Welsh?

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But the other singer that I admired tremendously was Ella Fitzgerald. Uh

Speaker 225:50

Yeah

Speaker 225:53

She drew a gun and shot her lover down.

Speaker 226:00

Oh madam, Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today.

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Ella FitzGerald.

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Now with all these travels you should have picked up enough information to help you to live comfortably on a desert island.

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Could you build a hut?

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No, God, no. I'm no good at anything like that. I've no mechanical mind at all. I'd hope there'd be a nice palm tree that would cover me. What about food? Is food important to you? No, food wouldn't worry me really at all.

Sir Anton Dolin26:35

Yeah.

Presenter26:37

I can live on fruit.

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Vegetables. I'd hope there'd be something. Do you think there would be anything on that desert? Oh, yes, of course there'd be. Ever done any fishing? Once, with Beatrice Lilly and Florida. All we caught was a crab.

Sir Anton Dolin26:42

Oh yes of course.

Presenter26:50

No, I'm not a good fisher. Would you try to escape?

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I might have done twenty years ago. You're a very good swimmer, I know. I'm a good swimmer.

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I might have wanted to escape twenty years ago, but you know, I wouldn't really if if I found the desert island comfortable and I th I think I would find it, especially with with the records and the memories that I would take with me.

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I don't think I would want to escape into the world as it is at this moment.

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Your last record? My last record, yes.

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I'm choosing Paul McCartley's latest record.

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Ebony and Ivory. It's sung by Stevie Wonder.

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I've got a reason for it.

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Years ago I was in that same show with Bernie Winters, Mike and Bernie Winters, when the Beatles came back from America after their first time there for the Ed Sullivan Show.

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And I was asked to be on

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The warming audience say a few words about what they were hosting, etcetera, etcetera. The tape was over, they'd filmed the show for the evening.

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Went up to the VIP room.

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Three other boys came in Ringo, George, and uh John.

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The last one to come in was Paul McCartney.

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Dead beat, exhausted I haven't seen anybody so tired in my life. Well, I have a little niece. She was little then. This is quite a few years ago.

Presenter28:06

And she said,'Oh, please, Uncle Pat, when you see the Beatles, do get their autographs for me. Well, I felt an awful fool running around the place. They were all dead. But I thought, What the hell doesn't matter.

Presenter28:15

I went to the three of them first, they gave me their autograph, then I went over to Paul, who was lounging in a chair.

Presenter28:21

And I say, I'm sorry, old boy, to worry you. You must be awfully tired.

Presenter28:25

Would you autograph this souvenir programme for me? It's for my niece.

Presenter28:30

I felt I had to say it's for my niece. I wouldn't have minded for myself, quite honestly.

Presenter28:34

Annie looks Oh, all right, if you want it done, I'll do it.

Presenter28:38

So he took my pen, he took the programme, he autographed it. I said, I I'm awfully sorry, really, to worry you.

Presenter28:45

But you know I am in show business myself.

Presenter28:49

Said you are.

Presenter28:50

I said, Yes, my name's Anton Dahlin.

Presenter28:54

Within a flash that boy was up on his two feet, legs together.

Presenter28:58

Is it Anton Dollin?

Sir Anton Dolin28:58

Uh

Presenter29:00

My God I never saw you dance, but my mother thinks you're great. I almost said, Thank God it wasn't your grandmother. Well, I dance an awful lot in Liverpool. That's obviously where she's seen me.

Presenter29:12

But it was a nice side to him, he's a charming character. He has a damn good record.

Speaker 229:14

Yeah.

Sir Anton Dolin29:16

As a

Presenter29:20

I fell underneath.

Presenter29:23

And I believe together

Sir Anton Dolin29:28

In perfect

Presenter29:30

Uh

Speaker 329:30

Harmony side by side on my piano.

Speaker 229:35

No he would, oh Lord, why don't we?

Presenter29:46

Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, Ebony and Ivory. If you could take only one disc out of the eight you played, which would it be?

Presenter29:54

Well as my oldest friend.

Presenter29:56

beloved friend, and a very, very great artist.

Presenter30:00

I would take Evelyn Leigh. Evelyn Leigh singing They Don't Make Them Like Battle. That's right. If I could take Evelyn Leigh personally, I certainly would too. Oh, well, that's another deal altogether.

Presenter30:09

And you're allowed to have one luxury with you, one thing of no practical use that you would enjoy to have.

Presenter30:15

I would take a very good electric razor. An electric razor, yes. Well, that's all right. We can give you some solar batteries. Well, I wouldn't need them probably, because I would only use it once. And I think it would last long enough. Because if I ever saw

Presenter30:28

A ship

Presenter30:29

or a boat.

Presenter30:31

Coming to rescue me.

Presenter30:32

I would remember Noel Coward's words.

Presenter30:36

Always, my dear, look your best when you come out of the stage door.

Presenter30:41

Whatever you've been wearing on the stage, see that your trousers are well creased and that your face is clean.

Presenter30:48

You have a tie on, and you look good.

Presenter30:51

because it's most important.

Presenter30:53

And I think that if I suddenly saw Boat appearing, I'd want to get rid of all the beard and the moustache that I've got, and have a clean face. All right.

Presenter31:01

And one book. You have the Bible and the works of Shakespeare on the island. You may choose one other book, one volume. That's the most ridiculous question you've ever asked me, but I love you for doing it. There's only one book I take with me, Dollyn, Friends and Memories, because it's a lovely book, and I have a chance to look at all those people for all the time I'm there. Your own book. All right. My own book.

Sir Anton Dolin31:20

Right.

Presenter31:21

Tell us, isn't it, that's arrogant.

Presenter31:24

Well, thank you, Sir Anton Dolan, for letting us hear your Desert Island discs. Thank you very much. It's been lovely being on the programme once again. Thank you. Goodbye, everyone.

Sir Anton Dolin31:40

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.