Forget the fashion, Victoria Beckham documentary needs more spice

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Victoria Beckham ★★★

Ever since the “be honest!” moment in David Beckham’s 2023 Netflix documentary – where David challenged his wife Victoria Beckham’s assertion that she was working class when, in fact, her dad drove her to school in a Rolls-Royce – a documentary about Victoria has been hotly anticipated.

She was, after all, a former Spice Girl, the Posh to his Becks, a footballing WAG and a longtime tabloid favourite who had somehow survived in the spotlight ever since she wiggled on stage in a little Gucci dress and sang Wannabe.

Would we finally get to see the real Victoria Beckham – the one who smiles, is witty and self-deprecating, the one who has been glimpsed in passing over 30-plus years in the celebrity game?

The answer is kinda, sorta, maybe.

What we do get is a controlled portrait of a very driven woman, who has worked hard to prove herself to, well, herself. And to her husband, even though he tells her constantly she doesn’t need to. David adores Victoria – that is evident across both documentaries – but she still doesn’t seem to adore herself. The ghosts of her past, of being told she was not “aesthetically pleasing” enough to be at the front of the stage during drama school performances, that she was either Skinny Spice or Chubby Spice, are what keep pushing her today.

Victoria and David Beckham in the early days of their relationship. The pair have been married for 26 years.

Directed by Nadia Hallgren, who directed the 2020 Michelle Obama documentary Becoming, and produced by David’s company Studio 99, the three-part documentary is framed around Victoria’s eponymous fashion label as it approaches Paris Fashion Week. The show will be the brand’s biggest ever and a statement about its creative and financial health after a few difficult years.

Because of this, the documentary is stacked with big names in fashion – Vogue’s Anna Wintour, designers Tom Ford, Donatella Versace and Roland Mouret, and supermodel Gigi Hadid. It also features, of course, David, her good friend Eva Longoria (the most energetic of the talking heads), her parents (briefly) and her business partner, David Belhassen.

But where are the Spice Girls? These are the women who were there at the beginning, the ones who battled with the same sexism and scrutiny Victoria did in her 20s. Imagine what Ginger, Sporty, Scary or Baby Spice could have added!

Sporty Spice (Melanie Chisholm), Scary Spice (Melanie Brown), Ginger Spice (Geri Halliwell), Posh Spice (Victoria Beckham) and Baby Spice (Emma Bunton).

We also don’t hear much from her four children, apart from a couple of sweet moments with teenage daughter Harper. Eldest son Brooklyn, and his wife Nicola Peltz – who are apparently estranged from the family – are missing completely. Imagine if Victoria had been asked what it felt like to have her eldest child absent during the biggest moment in her career?

That’s not to say she doesn’t get personal. Victoria admits to an eating disorder, being a “control freak” and “very good at lying” about her health. All of it was the result, she says, of being bullied and taunted while she was young and then again by an unforgiving media. She recounts being weighed on national TV in Britain just six months after giving birth to her first child, while a newspaper article reported she was still carrying extra weight 11 days after giving birth. That is awful.

I am a fan of Victoria – brunettes forever! – but she deserves better than this. She deserves a documentary that shows us who she is. David’s documentary showed us who he was outside of football: a keen beekeeper and cook, obsessive tidier of the house. I get Victoria wants to prove herself as a fashion designer, but I want more than a business plan. There are a couple of moments where you see Victoria relaxed with her family or playful with David, and they are lovely, but they are not enough.

It’s worth wondering what Fisher Stevens, who directed David’s documentary, would have made of it. He has a lovely light touch, and had already developed a wonderful rapport with Victoria in David’s documentary. Hallgren, meanwhile, who is an award-winning filmmaker, doesn’t draw Victoria out in the same way.

Authorised celebrity documentaries are a dime a dozen, trading access for approval of their story. David did it, too, with his documentary, which some criticised for not digging properly into his alleged affair with the family’s former nanny, Rebecca Loos.

As consumers, we have to ask do we want the authorised access – the backstage pass to a fashion show, the houses, the celebrity friends – or do we want the grubby details? I’ll take access, but what I want, what I really, really want, is the truth.

Victoria Beckham streams on Netflix from October 9.