1970 The Dance of the Seven Veils

Ken Russell at his best and most kitsch, a foretaste of energy and excitement of The Music Lovers. It is his first television film in colour.  The film is about composer Richard Strauss, who Russell seems to hate violently. The comic strip approach and appearance of Hitler alienated his audience.  A couple make love on the bed and just behind the bed is an orchestra (a chamber orchestra!!) with Ken Russell himself conducting both the orchestra and the couple.  When the Strauss family withdrew permission to use the music after the initial broadcast, Russell substituted Johan Strauss when excerpts from the film were broadcast (as in A British Picture).  It was time for Ken to move on from the BBC and back into films.

In The Times of 17 Feb 1970 says "The films was remarkable, if in nothing else, for showing such items as rape, violence, copulation and nudity to an extent probably never seen on television before."  Ken is quotes as saying on Strauss "I love his music and would not waste my time if I considered him to be artistically worthless."