Darcey Bussell’s Looking For Audrey – BBC
You all know who Audrey Hepburn is right? Over the years many a wall has been decorated with posters, some Che Guevera, some Bob Marley, some the tennis player scratching her “derrière” and many many Audrey Hepburn posters:
Yeah, that’s her. Apparently she’s a “gay icon“, although I have absolutely no idea why. What she definitely is though is an icon of the golden era of Hollywood and a true story of the American Dream and the “rags to riches” narrative. I confess to a certain liking for her, good wholesome films, attractive lady, “good” person and all, what’s not to like? So a documentary about Audrey Hepburn was sure to please I figured; Was I disappointed? So here it is: “Darcey Bussell’s Looking For Audrey” from the BBC. Darcey Bussell herself rather stylish and talented (though for me not a patch on Audrey, sorry Darcey!) goes in search of Audrey, to find out more about her, some of the lesser known “stuff”. Sure we all know Breakfast At Tiffany’s, she was Belgian (we won’t hold it against her) and she started her working life as a dancer. But there’s stuff we don’t know.
Her parents (not unlike mine) were somewhat eclectic in origin with a mix of nationalities “thrown into the pot” but aside from that I found little else in this documentary “new”, maybe I just knew too much about Audrey already? So the documentary takes us through her era of studying; WW2 and struggling to survive; her two marriages and resulting sons; her good deeds later in life; how she never found her “true love”; and how much the Givenchy black dress sold for at auction.
Don’t get me wrong the documentary was good, but frankly not “shattering”. The highlight for me was Darcey stating that she thought her (ie Darcey’s not Audrey’s) eye were a “shitty khaki colour”, something which me and Darcey have in common there then
I give it 5 out of 10. But what is good are Audrey’s many films of which these are but a “snapshot”:






