They called her Crazy Jane because of the way she danced, but it was not an affectionate nickname. Jane Avril used people all her life and reaped the consequences...

Starring Angela Pleasence.

When the Moulin Rouge cabaret opened in Montmartre, Paris in 1889, Toulouse-Lautrec was commissioned to paint a series of posters. A performer's career was made if they secured an appearance.

John Peacock brings Toulouse Lautrec's poster characters to life, in the first of four plays about those entertainers, whose lives were as vivid as Lautrec's paint.

Jane Avril ...... Angela Pleasence
Gazelle ...... Vivian Pickles
Andre Vaubert ...... Jack Galloway
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec ...... Clive Merrison
Arsene Ondet ...... David King
Charles Zidler ...... Norman Jones
Annine ...... Jo Kendall
Chairman ...... John Bull
Alain Marais ...... Brian Miller
Madeleine ...... Anne Carroll
Cleaner ...... Tara Dominic
Matron ...... Anna Cropper
Maxine ...... Valerie Sarruf
Claire Cortin ...... Alice Arnold
Gazelle (at 17) ...... Elizabeth Mansfield

Music by Stephen Warbeck.
Director: Jane Morgan

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 1989. Show less