The Liz And Dick Show

The BBC4 biopic, Burton and Taylor, has served as an appropriate amuse bouche for this helter skelter observance of love in decline.

Dhanil Ali forces us to witness the intimate breakdown of both a professional and personal relationship as Elizabeth and Richard spar at breakneck speed during their preliminary script readings. Ken McConnell rounds Burton’s Welsh vowels with warmth and tenderness only to be rebuffed by Elizabeth’s sharp alcohol-fuelled sarcasm. He wears the Burton cardigan as his own skin, the relaxed confident Shakespearean master who is obsessed with love for Elizabeth, but harbouring too the resentment which comes from being the poor Welsh boy now married to one of the world’s richest women. Lydia Poole plays the 34 year old Liz with natural glamour, perfectly timed wit and stomach lurching poignancy as she realises their marriage is steering toward an abyss. Even this does not stop her from prodding and needling him into explosion in order for her to enjoy the fallout, and the making up. Never were two people more “addicted to love”. And alcohol.

Public and private audiences are uncomfortable witnesses to their positive and negative passions. Can’t live with her, can’t live without him. In Richard Burton’s own words: “Our love is so furious that we burn each other out”.

Prepare for laughter, tears and an uncomfortable ride through the relationship of two of the most gifted and famous actors of the twentieth century.