Like most blokes, I've never really got the point of ballet; especially as its practitioners constantly tell us what infernally hard work it all is. However, the spectacle of Ludmilla Tcherina writhing in orgiastic abandon and a diaphanous mauve unitard performing the Dance of the Seven Veils in this exotic TV production of Wilde's play was more than enough to win me over when I chanced upon it at the age of 15 on BBC2 on the evening of Friday, 8 March 1974.
Tcherina was Hot. And flaunted it! Nearly twenty years after draping her tanned, athletic frame in a sheer black one-piece over the set of 'The Tales of Hoffmann' (1951) as the courtesan Giulietta, she surpasses herself - aged 44 - as Salome; and John the Baptist wouldn't have been the only man liable to lose his head over such an apparition. I've never had another opportunity to see it, and would be indebted to anyone who posted it on YouTube.
