The Light Fantastic

While most of Ken Russells documentaries for the BBCs Monitor arts strand focused on a single creative figure he would also occasionally make more wideranging surveys of the state of a particular art The Light Fantastic BBC tx 18121960 was written and presented by Ron Hitchins a Cockney barrow boy who has long been interested in a great many dance forms and who has recently taken up Spanish dancing Hitchins participates in some of the dance sequences but his main contribution is an enthusiastic commentary that helps personalise what could have been simply a disparate collection of dance footage Hes not shy about expressing likes and dislikes being none too keen on ballroom dancing too choreographed rocknroll too monotonous and Morris dancing just doesnt like it though anything genuinely spontaneous gets a thumbs up even if its a room full of people dressed in black swaying to the sound of a gong