Back in the 1920s, actress Lotte Lenya and her then husband, composer Kurt Weill, were the darlings of the new Expressionist theatre of Berlin. Bright, brilliant and defiantly progressive, they were part of a totally new kind of theatre, creating works like Threepenny Opera with Bertolt Brecht.
By the 1960s, she was married to a much younger man, and playing a very different kind of role as Rosa Klebb, the dry old harpy at the Russian Embassy in Istanbul who schemes to destroy James Bond in tonight's movie, From Russia With Love (Pearl, 9.30pm).
It is unlikely that a woman with such impeccable artistic credentials rated playing a Bond girl very highly in her resume. Working with Weill and Brecht is no doubt what she hoped to be remembered for. But it is impossible to watch her hamming it up as Klebb, with her bottle-thick glasses and sinister taste in strapping younger people, and not see that she is enjoying herself.
There is her rather over-enthusiastic prodding of SPECTRE killing machine Red Grant (Robert Shaw with dyed blond hair) - 'he seems fit enough' - and her slavering over the bait to entrap Bond: Tatiana, the gorgeous Russian embassy clerk. Pure ham, and pure joy to watch.
And why not? Klebb is one of the best screen villains in a Bond movie, so improbably vicious, so steely and vindictive. And, of course, she probably got paid more for doing it than for all the historically important theatre work with Weill and Brecht put together.
Perhaps it is intentional, but the meaning and message of Shadow Boxing On The Path To Nirvana (Radio 6, 1.30pm) are often hidden and alluded to, rather than explained, so the point of the thing remains confused.
The point is to investigate the growth of interest in Eastern martial arts, and explore the spiritual dimension of these techniques, too often lost in the ultra-violent spectacle of action movies.
