Burton & Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor once likened her tempestuous relationship with Richard Burton to a couple of sticks of dynamite, that would inevitably blow up when you clapped them together.

Twice-married and twice divorced from one another, they starred together in such films as Cleopatra, The Taming of the Shrew and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (to name a few).

For a star-struck audience, their on-screen passion and discourse was seemingly art imitating life.

So it’s no surprise that the pair have, over the years, been the subject of dramatisations. Taylor has previously been portrayed by Sherilyn Fenn, Claire-Monique Martin and even Lindsay Lohan. Australia’s Grant Bowler starred as Burton alongside the latter in 2012’s telemovie Liz and Dick.

In the BBC telemovie Burton and Taylor the tasks fall to formidable talent: Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West. Rather than trying to encapsulate their life-history, this zeroes in on a chapter of their lives: the staging of Noël Coward’s Private Lives .

By 1983 the pair had been divorced from one another twice, but reunited for the staging of Coward’s famous play about a divorced couple who still have feelings for one another.

For Taylor, recently turning 50, it was an opportunity to rekindle her passion for Burton, who had moved on to author / producer Sally Hay. Taylor is depicted in the telemovie as dependent on pills, with a casual commitment to the theatre, and full of excuses to spend more time with Burton.

Burton remains frustrated by her behaviour, but still drawn to the magnetic Taylor, and torn between whether to help or ignore her.

There are scenes of late rehearsals, backstage arguments, emotional bargaining and undeniable attraction. Private Lives is a hit with sell-out New Yorkers, but Burton the thespian is frustrated that audiences are turning up for a pantomime of their own lives (which Taylor pours on thick) versus the work of the playwright. Throughout it all, Taylor keeps an upper hand as producer of the production.

As in life, this telemovie is all about the two leading stars. Few other characters are offered much more substance than to facilitate the volatile arc we are here to witness.

Bonham-Carter captures Taylor’s child-like nature, pouting and slurring like a middle-aged sex kitten, even with a fullsome figure. But it’s hard not to notice that the camera does not quite love her in the way it so did Taylor. An impossible brief, perhaps…

Dominic West is thus more successful at channelling the spirit of his character, with gravitas and respectability as a man committed to the work (Richard just wants to play King Lear). His resonant Burton voice is utterly excellent, and helps get half the job done in itself.

I felt somewhat short-changed that there was nothing of Cleopatra, or their earlier marriages, and there are times when the Private Lives saga is at risk of repeating itself. But it may have been an astute decision to paint a chapter in more detail than skate thinly across too much material.

After torrid scenes driving the narrative, the ending peters out rather un-satisfyingly.

But Bonham-Carter and West do manage to create some small-screen magic, as shadows of the the silver-screen chemistry we all loved from Hollywood’s ultimate romantic couple.

Burton and Taylor premieres 8.30pm Sunday August 3rd on BBC First.