麻豆社

Dame Joan Collins concludes her candid, wonderfully witty account of her seven decade career in show business, illustrated by a treasure trove of archive clips and music.

With unapologetic frankness, she reflects on Hollywood, on TV, on men, losing out on Cleopatra to Elizabeth Taylor, getting older and modern standards of beauty and glamour.

With contributions from Sir Roger Moore, Stephanie Beacham, David Hasselhoff, Julian Clary, David Emanuel, Ellis Cashmore and Jo Botting.

In the last of two programmes, Joan recalls her return to acting in the 1970s. She vividly describes how she almost died whilst filming Empire Of The Ants and her two year battle to find a backer for The Stud - a film based on her sister Jackie's raunchy novel. She celebrates the string of disco hits that featured on the soundtrack.

American TV producer, Aaron Spelling, had been a close friend since the 1950s "We used to hang out at his apartment in Hollywood and he used to talk about how he was going to be a big producer one day. Hahaha I would say." He invited her to play Cleopatra in his hit show Fantasy Island - a role she'd originally been offered by 20th Century Fox in the early 60s until she was replaced by Elizabeth Taylor.

When it came to casting the role of Alexis in Dynasty, Spelling was adamant that Joan be given the part - despite the studio's fierce objections. Joan remembers preparing for the iconic 80s role: "I basically based my character a little bit on Donald Trump who I knew at the time, a feisty go-ahead businessman. I thought this will be good to use this as a basis for how my character is."

She also describes the joys of holidaying in St Tropez, performing in panto with Julian Clary, and receiving her damehood in March 2015.

Producer: Susan Marling

A Just Radio production for 麻豆社 Radio 2, first broadcast in July 2016.

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