Beckham

Netflix
4 out of 5 stars

This four-part documentary lifts the curtain on the life of retired English football legend David Beckham and his marriage to former Spice Girls pop star Victoria Adams.

Given rare access to the couple, director Fisher Stevens has put together a mostly hagiographic portrait of the man.

But it is still humanising and, for fans of a certain era of pop culture, immensely nostalgic.

Here are a few other reasons to stream the show, one of the most-watched on Netflix since debuting in October.

1. A working-class lad made good

The story begins with Beckham as a skinny, football-obsessed teen signing with Manchester United’s youth team when he was 14.

The son of a hairdresser and a man who installed kitchens for a living, Beckham was a working-class loner who struggled at school.

A sublime goal scored from the halfway line at age 21 put him on the map.

The series is peppered with pithy interviews with Manchester United teammates – including Eric Cantona, Rio Ferdinand, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes – who call Beckham a “pretty boy”.

But it was Beckham becoming a media darling – and deciding that he wanted to be more than just a football player – that helped turn footballers into rock stars.

2. The Posh and Becks phenomenon

Beckham’s public profile is supercharged by his romance with Adams.

Together, they are a paparazzo’s wet dream, but also genuinely and madly in love.

And it is endearing when they banter with each other, as when Adams tells the interviewer she grew up “working class” and Beckham fact-checks her.

Given how extensively their lives have been dissected in the media, it is small details such as this that are the most revelatory here.

And while Beckham has spoken of it publicly before, the show delves into his obsessive-compulsive disorder, which drives him to fanatically clean the house and organise his closets.

3. Even haters eventually love him

The only other time the series hints at his flaws is when it touches, briefly, on the allegations of infidelity Beckham faced from his former assistant Rebecca Loos.

But even when the documentary does acknowledge his detractors and enemies, he somehow always manages to win their respect.

So either this was shot through rose-tinted lenses or the man really is a bit of a saint. In any case, it makes for a fun fairy tale.