Review of Miss Marie Lloyd - Queen Of The Music Hall

Introduction

I`m always slightly disappointed getting a largely anonymous replication plant test disc of a release - no box illustration or anything of the finished package - but I really loathe work-in-progress discs where the PR company sends us a DVD+R containing just the movie or programme without the menus or any extras. We are a DVD Review site, not tv critics, and sending us a work-in-progress disc like this is like a contestant on Masterchef sending John Torode a bag of groceries upon which to be judged.

This Hat Trick Production for BBC Television was recently shown on BBC4 to some acclaim. Marie Lloyd was possibly the first stage megastar in Britain and the first victim of that kind of fame.

Described in the subtitle as Queen Of The Music Hall, Marie Lloyd was the biggest star of the British music hall. Famed for her raucous songs, including Oh Mr Porter, My Old Man (Said Follow The Van), and I`m One Of The Ruins That Cromwell Knocked About A Bit, Lloyd was the Posh Spice of her day.

Born Matilda Alice Victoria Wood in 1870, Lloyd was the stagestruck daughter of a waiter and the eldest of eleven siblings. The programme charts her rise to fame and her premature death aged 52, possibly of a broken heart, possibly of mercury poisoning. The story is linked by Shaun Parkes as The Showman.

Jessie Wallace, formerly of Eastenders, is excellent as Lloyd, taking her from a young woman fresh to the stage, through to a prematurely aged 52-year-old, slurring her way through a final song. The silent archive footage of Lloyd`s funeral is oddly moving.

79 minutes

Video

Top grade current BBC output - 16:9 anamorphic widescreen presentation.

Audio

Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Features

Search Me.

Conclusion

The ultimately depressing biopic of one of the giants of Edwardian music hall. If you remember the BBC series The Good Old Days, then any song they sang on that show was very likely first performed by Marie Lloyd.