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Preview Image for Miss Marie Lloyd - Queen Of The Music Hall (UK)
Miss Marie Lloyd - Queen Of The Music Hall (UK) (DVD Details)

Unique ID Code: 0000095958
Added by: Mark Oates
Added on: 20/7/2007 07:05
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    Review of Miss Marie Lloyd - Queen Of The Music Hall

    5 / 10

    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.

    Your Opinions and Comments

    It’s a really commendable film and maybe a difficult job to undertake marketing it. You would be forgiven for thinking what’s Jessie Wallace got to do with the film because she isn’t credited as the star on the DVD cover, only that there’s an interview with her. Yet she was totally brilliant and hilarious in her portrayal and her singing was outstanding. It’s a shame she’s not had more roles as she could easily hold her own in any Hollywood production.
    posted by Dan on 6/9/2020 16:43