By Debi Enker

Copyright theage

The celebrity biography is hardly an under-nourished area, but there’s been a notable influx to our streaming libraries over the past few years. Apple TV+ has delivered screen profiles of Billie Eilish, Michael J. Fox and Selena Gomez – with the latter (Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me) presenting a raw and revealing insight into her physical and mental struggles. And Netflix is the clear market leader with notable recent titles examining the lives of Pamela Anderson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lewis Capaldi, Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and David Beckham.

It’s worth noting that, in its own fashion, this is also what the ABC’s Australian Story has been doing for decades, with last month’s episode about singer Alex Lloyd a good example.

But nothing can quite rival the impact of the Netflix docuseries. In 2023, three years after The Last Dance, Beckham became an object of cultural fascination. The series explored the footballer’s career and personal life, revealing the pressures this softly spoken and fiercely focused golden boy faced when thrust into the spotlight, and how that all intensified after hooking up with a pop princess, the Spice Girls’ Victoria Adams, and becoming Britain’s pop-culture royalty.

The Emmy Award-winning series vividly evokes the early days of their reign in the ’90s: Britpop, the upbeat mood of the nation under Tony Blair’s New Labour government, the fashions. It’s also a love story about the enduring bond of a couple that’s weathered considerable challenges. Posh now has her own three-part series, Victoria Beckham, premiering on Netflix next month.