Beckham
It’s good, very good. I’m not a particular fan of his one way or the other, but my admiration for him, and indeed The Current Mrs Beckham, has risen after watching this four part Netflix miniseries. As most will know, I’m currently recovering from a long term illness, so this filling four hours of my day was very welcome indeed.
Directed by Fisher Stevens (communications director Hugo from Succession oddly enough) this is perhaps the most candid profile of a public figure you’ll ever see. Nothing is left unsaid. With perhaps his alleged affair with Rebecca Loos, which is discussed at great length, but we never discover if he actually did have an extra-marital fling, being the only thing left unsaid.
There are three scenes which will endear you to them. He’s talking about when he first met Victoria “I just fancied her”, it then cuts to her talking about the same meeting “I fancied him”. It’s lovely, and obviously from watching this that they are still madly in love with one another. There’s another scene when he’s driving through Madrid at the height of his fame. He can hardly drive for fans jumping in front of the car, banging on the windows, it’s dreadful. His wife and son, who’s a toddler at the timer, are sat in the back, terrified. He turns around and gently reassures his son that they can’t get in and everything is going to be okay. And then of course, Roy Keane. In the wake of his red card against Argentina in the ‘98 World Cup, Beckham became public enemy No’1. Initially vilified by the media and fans, it eventually spilled onto the pitch with opposition players targeting him. Old Roy soon puts a stop to that, and we’re shown him, Keane, grabbing some unfortunate defender by the neck. It stopped pretty soon after that.
And talking of Keane, it’s absolutely jam packed with famous names. The aforementioned Keane, the Neville brothers, Solskjær, Ferguson, Capello, Brazilian Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Sporty Spice, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes, Hooky out of New Order, Cantona, Figo, and most impressively of all, Michel Salgado, and a host of others. None of whom have a bad word to say about him.
As a person, he does come across as very much a man who likes to be in control in all aspects of his life, right down to staying up after midnight every day to clean his house. He freely admits that this goes way beyond strange, and that his family don’t appreciate his efforts, but he also takes the endless pisstaking from them in extreme good humour. He comes across as someone who’s family are his entire life. He gets this from his own parents, featured throughout, his mother being the good cop to his father's bad. They instilled in him the ability to work extremely hard to get what he wants in life, and embrace the comfort of a loving family.
Above all the extreme nonsense that continues to surround him, you’re reminded just how brilliant a footballer he was. I really enjoyed this. Obviously if you're on this forum you're a footy fan, but as I said to The Current Mrs Gers, you don't need to either like the beautiful game, or indeed like brand Beckham to enjoy this. Highly recommended.
_________________ Hello, city morgue... You stab 'em, we slab 'em.
|