Do you want to know more about Victoria Beckham – glummest of the Spice Girls, glamorous Posh to David Beckham’s sarong-sporting Becks, and one of the celebrities who helped usher in the Year of the WAG at the 2006 Germany World Cup?
You might even be curious about speculation of a rift between the Beckhams and their eldest, Brooklyn, and his wife, Nicola Peltz. Well, tough, because there’s not much of any of that in Victoria Beckham (Netflix, from today) – a drearily airbrushed three-part documentary focused mainly on her fashion business and her sense that she has been hard done by during her life in the spotlight.
In her defence, “Posh” was the victim of appalling misogyny at the peak of the Spice Girls’ fame and in the years that followed. The Spice Girls’ motto might have been girl power, but going to number one with Wannabe didn’t do much to banish the turbo-charged sexism of the Lad mag 1990s, and Posh was on the receiving end of the worst of it. She was written off as talentless, moody (in fact, she was camera shy, she says), the original vacuous footballer’s wife.
People weren’t mean-spirited towards her – they were vile. “She’s just a common little bitch,” said art critic Brian Sewell in archive footage. Feted restaurant critic AA Gill said she “has got that sort of used look”. Remember when we used to hang on every word of these sorts of individuals?
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She went through a lot and is entitled to give her version of events. She talks about enduring negative comments about her weight at stage school, and of hearing over and over again that she couldn’t sing or dance. She will feel that, having endured such slurs in silence, she is entitled to push back – which she is.
The problem is that the rest of the documentary is essentially an infomercial for Victoria Beckham, fashion designer. Granted, her designs are chic and understated – though few viewers will have had the opportunity to experience her wares firsthand, given their nosebleed prices. (In Brown Thomas, a Victoria “Small Tote Bag” will set you back €1,450.) Do we really need to accompany her to a fashion event outside Paris? Or endure the staged drama involving a rain shower that could potentially derail the show (spoiler: it does not derail the show).
David Beckham pops up with a few pithy asides (though there is nothing about Rebecca Loos’ claim of an affair with David, as alluded to in Netflix’s 2023 doc about the footballer). He is joined by her friend Eva Longoria and Vogue’s Anna Wintour, all of whom attest to her gumption and her can-do energy. However, none of her former Spice Girl bandmates are interviewed – they are almost as invisible as Brooklyn (at one point, the camera pans along the rest of the family at a fashion show, only to cut out just as it comes to Brooklyn and his wife).
When Victoria does talk about the Spice Girls, it is not exactly in glowing terms, and she spikily recalls Scary Spice Melanie Brown essentially accusing her of getting too big for her boots. “One of the girls actually said to me, and it did upset me – not too long ago, actually – it was Melanie B who said to me, ‘Don’t forget where you’ve come from.’ I have never forgotten where I came from,” says Victoria.
“I’ve never forgotten that Posh Spice is the reason I am sitting here now.”
The most insightful remarks are from David, who wonders why Victoria always feels that she has to do more. “Who are you trying to prove it to?” he wonders. “Maybe to you,” she sobs. “You know of course I feel bad about all that time when I had to ask you to help me out.” This is a reference to the years when her husband had to provide financial backing for her fashion business.
“When I saw yours and the kids’ faces backstage after the last show it was not the first time but a real moment for me when I could see how proud of me you were.”
Beckham theorises that she is a control freak and has difficulty letting go. Successful people often do – but they also tend to keep a tight lid on their image, and that is what Victoria does with a documentary in which she has lots to say but where she shows precious little of the person behind the persona. The mystery of Posh Spice endures.
