DISNEY DAMES

My 1998 BBC six-part radio series, Disney's Women, celebrating Walt Disney's leading ladies which I originally co-presented with Walt's daughter, the late Diane Disney Miller, is currently being re-broadcast as three one-hour programmes on BBC Radio 2.

Diane and I discuss all those famous Disney heroines – Snow White, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Mary Poppins, Ariel and Belle (oh, yes, and not forgetting Minnie Mouse!) – as well those wicked queens, cruel stepmothers and other menacing villainesses, such as the dalmatian-fur-obsessed Cruella de Vil! The series also explores the importance and influence of Walt's mother, Flora Disney, his wife, Lillian and their two daughters.

In addition to my co-presenter, many of those whom I interviewed for the series are, sadly, no longer with us  which gives it an added poignancy to the programmes as well as providing a remarkable archive of the women (and men!) who were responsible for the memorable female characters in Disney movies: among the role-call of the departed are artists and animators, Marc Davis, John Hench, Joe Grant, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, Disney executive, Roy E Disney and biographer Bob Thomas and my dear friend and most intuitive of Disney historians, Robin Allan.

The series – produced by my good pal and colleague, Malcolm Prince – examines the work of artists Mary Blair and Alice Davis as well as featuring the work of the singers and actresses who gave voice (and sometimes provided live-action inspiration) for the Disney ladies from Adriana Caselotti (Snow White), Ilene Woods (Cinderella) and Katherine Beaumont (Alice and Wendy) to Jodi Benson (Ariel) and Ming-Na Wen (Mulan). There are also contributions from Richard M Sherman, who with his late brother, Robert B Sherman, wrote the songbook of '60s childhood and, of course, Dame Julie Andrews who sang some of their most famous songs!

Disney's Women is being broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Tuesday evenings at 10:00 pm and episodes are available afterwards on BBC iPlayer for 30 days.

You will find current listening details here


A common comment that I receive when an old programme of mine such as this gets repeated runs along the lines of: 'More cash rolling into the Sibley coffers, courtesy of the BBC!' Oh, if only they knew: this series would not normally carry any repeat fee, but – on this occasion – only because I had to go into Broadcasting House to record updated the opening and closing announcements, I will be getting the princely sum of £200!

Ah, well, never mind, at least it's nice to know that people will get a chance to hear again what was once a regular radio voice...

ONCE UPOIN A DISNEY TIME

When you read this, I will be on my way to Derbyshire to speak at tomorrow's funeral of my friend Robin Allan, with whom – over some 40+ years – I have shared so many common enthusiasms and from whose knowledge of art, literature and cinema, I have learned so much.

What initially brought us into a friendship was a mutual obsession with the life and films of Walt Disney. Later we both went on to write about Disney and Robin earned his Phd for his superbly researched and argued 1993 thesis, The European Influences on the Animated Feature Films of Walt Disney.

Five years later, this ground-breaking study was published as Walt Disney and Europe: one of the most significant books on Disney art to be written and to which I was honoured to contribute a preface.

Robin and I lectured together on one or two occasions and whenever I got the opportunity, I would involve him in my broadcasts. He appeared in programmes I wrote about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (which he he had seen as a young boy on its first release and which remained one of his favourite films), a documentary marking Mickey Mouse's 60th birthday and a feature on Disney's 1940 masterwork, Fantasia, and its sequel, Fantasia 2000. 

Today, I am posting a broadcast I made for the BBC World Service in 1992 to mark the release of Walt Disney Productions' Beauty and the Beast and which explores the way in which fairy-tales have been retold in the cinema. Robin Allan is joined by fellow commentators Christopher Frayling and Marina Warner and I hope you will enjoy the programme and the observations of my oldest and dearest friend...

Here are some more Disney radio programmes featuring contributions from Robin Allan...

The Fairest of Them All

The Mouse That Walt Built: Mickey at Sixty

Fantasia Revisited