He was the epitome of a certain kind of urbane, aristocratic Englishness. But Noël Coward grew up in relative poverty, in his mother’s boarding house. He was famously erudite but an autodidact (he left school at nine to earn a living as a child performer). He was both a satirist and a sentimentalist; a heart-throb who was covertly gay.
This very enjoyable and informative documentary, directed by Barnaby Thompson, digs into the contradictions underpinning the life and work of one of the most prolific and versatile talents of the 20th century. The film draws on a wealth of archive material, including plenty of Coward delivering waspish witticisms in interviews, but also more personal, previously unseen material culled from his holiday home movies. It’s a fascinating portrait of the man, and of an era – a time in which a wildly successful entertainer had to be wary of wearing a polo neck sweater in public, for fear of inadvertently outing himself.
