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00:03I've photographed David Beckham quite a few times.
00:09I laid out just a few things because my connection with David kind of goes back quite a way.
00:20When Manchester United won the treble, I was invited up there to do a formal portrait.
00:27And actually, my favourite pictures are these with them actually getting ready.
00:33You get to see the dynamic of all of them and you get to see also Beckham sort of just
00:39as one of the team.
00:41Here he's like fixing his tie. Here he's laughing at someone's joke.
00:46So I pulled him aside and I said, you know, can I just take a couple of pictures of you
00:51on your own, David?
00:51I didn't know him at the time. So he said, sure, he's very gracious. He's very calm. He's not rushing.
01:00He has this sort of look that he's in control.
01:06But fame is a machine that needs feeding.
01:16He is the most influential footballer in the bigger sense of the word there's ever been.
01:22He was, as the tabloids described him, the footballing hunk with the boy band looks.
01:35You realise that this was someone who had more intent than just being an amazing person on a pitch.
01:41Richard Desmond offered a million pounds.
01:44He said, you have to sign on the dotted line now.
01:57Beckham, from a very young age, enjoyed playing with his public image.
02:05Shall we talk about the haircut first and get it out of the way?
02:07If you want to, go on.
02:09He knows he's going to be photographed and he knows he's going to cause a sensation.
02:20The sarong. This shook the world, didn't it?
02:25The idea of somebody coming from football would embrace his gay audience was groundbreaking.
02:40He's pushed the boundaries of what's considered normal or acceptable.
02:47Brands need fame and fame need brands. That was the perfect combination.
02:57There is the line-up of brand Beckham.
03:01You are projecting an image of a very wholesome, perfect family unit.
03:06The problem is, as we all know, families are not perfect.
03:15Frank Beckham is a business. It's about making money.
03:19He commodified himself. He commodified his image.
03:21To live in the spotlight, you have to be really, really committed.
03:25David has proved to be probably one of the world's greatest celebrities who have mastered that.
03:48In 1986, like so many other young boys, the 11-year-old David Beckham loved nothing more than a kickabout
03:56in his local park.
03:57But there were already signs that this boy was different.
04:03I first became aware of David Beckham as a school friend of my nephew.
04:09He often spoke about his friend, even at a very young age, who was a really, really good footballer.
04:17And it turned out to be David.
04:21Lawrence Lustig was working as a Fleet Street photographer when he heard that his nephew's friend David had won a
04:28national football skills competition.
04:36I thought, this is a really good story, and I was the first to go and photograph him.
04:43He was playing for a team called Ridgeway Rovers.
04:46They played on this very ground.
04:49And I just wanted to show the excitement of a young lad going off to a train with Barcelona.
05:09In the middle of the picture, you may notice a familiar face, and that is a young David Beckham jumping
05:15over his team-mates.
05:17This is my version of him celebrating.
05:21My name is Micah Hyde, and I was fortunate enough to know David, because we played in the same Sunday
05:26team when we were youngsters.
05:30I remember this photo.
05:32This is me here, the one laughing.
05:34One of the smallest ones in the team, with a big grin on my face, watching David jump over some
05:39of our team-mates.
05:42We were probably the smallest in the group, to be honest with you, diminutive.
05:46But immense talent, obviously David had immense talent.
05:50David was fantastic at striking the ball at a young age.
05:53His quality was way above the general age group of the players we played against.
05:57David was addicted to football. Driven, focused, from a young age.
06:04The crucial part of that picture is getting David at his full height.
06:10That's why, if you look, I've got their heads sort of leaning into each other, because I needed to make
06:18sure that David was high enough.
06:20That's where your hand-eye and anticipation come into it.
06:25You have to make sure that you're bang on the button there.
06:32The young David Beckham was flying high.
06:37And soon, it was the turn of television producers to see something in the football prodigy.
06:44Why are you special in the sports world?
06:47Well, I run the bobby chart in soccer school. Comp finals, skills finals.
06:52Brilliant! So where are you off to?
06:55Barcelona.
06:56Come on, come and show me how you did it.
07:01Oh!
07:02Hey!
07:03Well done!
07:09The boy from Chingford was quickly learning how the media operated and what it required from him.
07:18Four years later, in 1990, he would be back on television, this time when his childhood dream came true.
07:26We're going to meet one 14-year-old boy who's just signed for Manchester United.
07:30There's a picture of you there signing with Alex Ferguson.
07:34What was it like when you signed that? How did you feel?
07:36Well, it was brilliant straight from when we left here.
07:40When we got there, it was just brilliant.
07:44Signing the paper and I just couldn't believe it was happening.
07:49I was elated. He's one of our players, one of us.
07:52So you somehow had success through his success.
07:56You know this person, you know, you're happy, you're glad, I think all the team was.
08:00Beckham and his young teammates at United became known as the class of 92.
08:06They were all gifted footballers on the cusp of success.
08:10But there was still something about Beckham that made him stand out.
08:19A champagne breakfast for the new Premiership champions.
08:23One of the most extraordinary aspects of this team's phenomenal success is that many of the players are still so
08:30young.
08:32By 1997, the 22-year-old Beckham was catching the eye of both fans and newspaper editors.
08:45His looks, his skills and his swagger made him a favourite on the terraces and in the tabloids.
08:52And very soon, he learned that his image could sell more than just newspapers.
08:58He started conventionally enough by advertising football boots.
09:03But he soon moved into uncharted territory.
09:07That played not just to his football talent, but to his pop star looks.
09:12Grill cream. New high-performance gels, wax and styling cream.
09:20When we started to see the way he looked, the way he dressed, the way he turned up,
09:25suddenly you realise that this was someone who had more dimension and kind of more intent
09:30than just being an amazing person on a pitch.
09:35Ah, there I am.
09:37Hanging on in there, running behind, holding a notebook, the old-fashioned way.
09:44Sarah Bailey was a journalist given access to follow Beckham
09:48on the day he was launched as the new face of Brill Cream.
09:54We'd collected David at Heathrow.
09:57We all jammed into the black camp.
10:01It was quite hard to get the conversation rolling.
10:06He was not comfortable.
10:09He hadn't got his patter sorted.
10:14Beckham himself knew that his strength lay in his appearance,
10:18rather than how he sounded.
10:20My grandad used to use it, and I used to try and sleep a bit.
10:25The look and feel was so male, so masculine, so sort of hunky for the day.
10:32And then he would speak, and it was a kind of, oh, OK, I didn't expect the voice to kind
10:38of be as high as it was.
10:41So I'm sure they kept the speaking to a minimum for very, very good reasons.
10:48He may not have been a confident talker, but Beckham knew he had something more than just footballing talent.
10:54He had the look that everyone wanted, and that was worth something.
11:00There was something new about him as a sports star.
11:04He was, as the tabloids described him, you know, the footballing hunk with the boy band looks.
11:11Brands need fame and fame need brands. That was the perfect combination.
11:19But Beckham's look was a far cry from most other footballers.
11:23And a departure from the game's macho culture, dominated by hard men on and off the pitch.
11:33Football was a different game.
11:35It was a more physical game.
11:37And it was viewed as a male-dominated sport.
11:41Off the pitch, the crowds were essentially male.
11:46There wasn't many women that you saw going to football.
11:51But by the late 90s, football was moving with the times.
11:55Male grooming was in.
11:57And Beckham quickly became its new poster boy.
12:02The term metrosexual was coined in 1994.
12:05And Beckham, knowingly or unknowingly, represented this new type of masculinity.
12:12And young, masculine beauty.
12:18Men's attitude towards the way they look and how they're groomed is changing.
12:23Have you got a good moisturiser for men?
12:25I've got one. It's perfect.
12:27It's called the present by philosophy. It's all three, so they love it because it's like an afternoon.
12:32It's just amazing.
12:36Men, be they gay or straight, actually caring about cleaning their face and grooming their hair.
12:43Making yourself look more handsome, more acceptable, you know, for whoever you wanted to attract.
12:51Letrosexual and Beckham became two words that you saw in sentences quite a lot.
12:56He did give permission to have a conversation for men about having pride in how they groomed, what they bought,
13:05maybe no longer stealing their wives' products but having their own products.
13:09And, of course, he was essentially a beautiful-looking man but very much a man.
13:16David Beckham was starting to realise that his face could be his fortune.
13:21But that same afternoon, after the Brillcreen press call, he also undertook his first fashion photo shoot for Sky magazine.
13:32Magnum photographer Peter Marlow would capture a young man as comfortable in a suit as a football kit.
13:39I look at these contact sheets and I see a sort of innocence and a sort of goofiness.
13:45He's a little cautious, a little shy.
13:50I can see him warming up for the camera.
13:53And yet, on the left-hand side, when the pose is coming together,
13:57it suddenly snaps together.
13:59You know, his body looks like, you know, a male model.
14:03This is his potential as a fashion icon.
14:22He's got his weight over on one hip, he's got one leg cocked, so you've got this kind of lovely
14:28serpentine body shape that he's presenting.
14:31And the fact that he's got his hands behind his back and he's got the jacket pulled back,
14:36it's really emphasising these broad shoulders, the tiny waist, a lot of attention pulled to the crotch area.
14:42It's very much making you aware of what will soon be referred to as golden balls as golden balls.
14:50As a setting for photographs of young men, the urban rooftop is one that I would associate more with the
14:58music world.
14:59So you get this imagery of, you know, quite grumpy looking guys looking disaffected and like they don't fit into
15:07the street level world of the day to day,
15:10but they're up there on the roof kind of fomenting revolution.
15:13So I think it's trying to infuse him with this more kind of urban swagger.
15:18He's not really performing as David Beckham, the footballer.
15:21It's very much more like an acting role.
15:26The choice to dimensionalise his presence beyond being on the field was obviously super smart and super unusual.
15:35Because of course, the more you can dimensionalise, then actually the better a celebrity you become.
15:42You learn from how the media reacts.
15:44You learn from how the population that you're trying to reach reacts.
15:48You learn about the imagery and that's super important.
15:54With the Brill Cream launch, Beckham was learning how to make money from promoting other people's products.
16:01But he was also learning how to sell himself.
16:11And he was about to experience a whole new level of celebrity.
16:16As one half of the country's most talked about couple.
16:28In early 1998, Beckham and Victoria Adams, Posh Spice, announced their engagement.
16:40When he met her, she was far more famous than he was.
16:44She was the one that had the security force around her.
16:47She was the one who had the sort of machinery around her much more than he did.
16:51He didn't have that sort of celebrity management.
16:53He had sports management.
16:55And so he learnt from her world.
17:01Alan Edwards was in charge of PR for the Spice Girls at the time.
17:05And saw first-hand Beckham's arrival at the heart of a showbiz circus.
17:13David was incredibly shy.
17:17When I first met him, he'd literally be looking down at the ground when he was talking to you.
17:24But he kind of enjoyed it.
17:26He treated it all as an adventure.
17:31David and Victoria were hot property for the tabloids.
17:34And everyone was on the hunt for the next lucrative photo of them.
17:48I had a call from the office on my car phone, saying, you've got to go to Nice tonight.
17:56I had a bag packed.
17:58I had 80 to 100 rolls of film in the car.
18:01All the gear.
18:03Harry Page was following a tip-off to the Sun newspaper.
18:07That the Spice Girls were staying at Elton John's house in the south of France.
18:13Out came a Bentley with posh Spice in the back and, to our amazement, David Beckham.
18:25The car drove off very slowly.
18:29Within 20 minutes, we arrived at a hilltop town.
18:39The car pulled up here, the Bentley, and they got out of the car and walked through these gates.
18:46Obviously, they were going out for dinner.
18:49At this point here, the path widened, so I think I must have nipped ahead of them.
18:56They would have walked towards me and I picked up the camera and went.
19:17Thomas Whittaker, the reporter on the paper.
19:21I remember him shouting out, crikey, he's wearing a skirt.
19:27David's got a bit of a smirk on his face.
19:29I certainly don't think they minded us being there at all.
19:32In fact, I would suggest that we were supposed to be there,
19:35because how would we have known they were in the south of France, in the middle of nowhere?
19:39Even in those early days of Beckham fashion,
19:43I think he knew that this was going to bring a reaction.
19:47The photo was splashed across the front page of The Sun.
19:53What had been a story about Victoria and the Spice Girls was now very much about David.
20:00The sarong. This shook the world, didn't it?
20:03How unthinkable for a footballer to wear something like that.
20:09The fans, you know, they were like,
20:12what's going on here? I can't believe it.
20:15He's wearing a dress.
20:18The sarong is a Jean-Paul Gaultier design.
20:21This shows a true sophistication.
20:25It's a very in-the-know outfit that signals to the tastemakers of the luxury fashion houses
20:34that this is a guy who gets it.
20:43Famous, famous picture.
20:45It was a big cultural moment.
20:48It changed people's attitudes towards footballers in a certain way,
20:54but it mainly changed people's attitudes towards him.
20:58The first time I met him, he was very tentative,
21:01and she was the dominant force.
21:05She was the one who was slightly ahead.
21:08She was the one who would speak to the journalists first
21:11because she was a pop star.
21:12She was used to doing all this nonsense.
21:14But with this picture, with the sarong,
21:17you can tell that he's starting to take control.
21:21What I find really fascinating with this image
21:25is that he is absolutely the centre of attention.
21:29It's like the light is drawn to him.
21:31The light is drawn to the highlights of his hair.
21:33It's drawn to his face.
21:35And he's at this point holding the hands
21:37of one of the most famous and fancied women in the world.
21:41And she's fading into the background.
21:44She's looking down, and all of the attention is on him.
21:47So he's the peacock in this image.
21:51He's here in quite a daring bit of kit,
21:54wearing it right out in public when he knows he's going to be photographed,
21:57and he knows he's going to cause a sensation.
22:03This was probably the moment when all the international brands
22:08could see what this duo could do for them.
22:13Despite the ridicule from some at the time,
22:16David Beckham refused to be shamed.
22:18He had a new marketable asset.
22:21He was a fashion trendsetter.
22:24There has been a complicity which has helped his image,
22:27because for that to work, for that relationship to really work,
22:30you need two equal, enthusiastic partners.
22:34You've got the media and you've got him.
22:36Beckham was enjoying being a celebrity off the pitch
22:39and a star player on it.
22:41The public and the papers couldn't get enough.
22:45But less than a month after Sorongate,
22:48he was about to grab the headlines again for all the wrong reasons.
22:53Beckham had been selected to start for England
22:55in their World Cup Last 16 match against Argentina.
23:00Among English supporters, hopes were high.
23:04The streets of England lay almost completely deserted this evening,
23:08with much of the country in front of the television.
23:15It's an England free kick.
23:17As Beckham lay on the ground,
23:19he did move his right leg in Simeone's direction,
23:22but it seemed to be something and nothing.
23:25And a red card for David Beckham.
23:30It was an awful time to receive a red card in an international.
23:35And one wonders as he goes down the tunnel
23:38whether he takes England's World Cup hopes with him.
23:44Well, we're never going to forget this, are we?
23:47The expression of the referee, what a twit.
23:49I was at that game, I was in the stand.
23:52David gets himself sent off.
23:54Suddenly, the world changed.
23:59After Beckham's sending off,
24:01England went on to lose on penalties.
24:04And Beckham became a national hate figure overnight.
24:11This is such an extraordinary photograph,
24:13and you really don't need to know anything about football
24:17to read this as an image of high drama.
24:22It's got this amazing composition with this piece of evidence being held aloft,
24:27right at the top of the image.
24:29And we've got David Beckham's body turning away,
24:32and you've got this crowd that's formed against him on the other side.
24:36So it is him in this moment of isolation.
24:39For me, this really fits into that grand tradition of history painting,
24:44where we have this pivotal, decisive moment that's captured in a picture.
24:49And the way that people are looking, it directs your eye to the important objects.
24:55And it's just absolutely that pivotal moment in a story that tells you what's going to happen next.
25:03Even if we're not consciously making these connections to a historic work of art,
25:08the power of an image like this really holds in your mind.
25:12And it becomes the image of this match.
25:16When he got the red card, the media threw everything at him.
25:20It was very important, and football's more important than anything.
25:28Sending off, you know, cost us dearly.
25:30Gutted, is the word.
25:33All that bad sort of previous 80s tribal vibe came out,
25:39and he took the blame for the whole thing, which is ridiculous.
25:46They had a dartboard in one paper, they had an effigy somewhere else.
25:52It was so disgusting and violent.
25:55He was like public enemy number one.
25:59The sending off now threatened to destroy Beckham's poster boy image.
26:04He needed to find a way back.
26:09Tonight, David Beckham is on his way to New York
26:12to meet up with his fiancée, Victoria Adams, posh spice.
26:19It's a bit heavy, to be honest.
26:22Alan Edwards agreed to take on Beckham
26:25and tried to turn around the footballer's now-hated image.
26:31This is an old Ryman's folder, and we would have had many in our office,
26:35and we put in press cuttings and PR plans.
26:39And we're talking about our primary plan
26:42is to continue the successful rehabilitation of David's image
26:46post-World Cup by promoting David as down-to-earth,
26:49stylish and cutting edge.
26:51We know David's shyness is sometimes misinterpreted as being distant,
26:55to that result that we consider interview technique training,
26:59so that David would be equipped.
27:00I mean, it's funny, it all seems so innocent.
27:09Step back! Step back, lads!
27:14Soon, Alan and Beckham would get a chance
27:16to try and eclipse the image of the infamous red card.
27:21Step back, please. Step back. Step back, lads!
27:23Step back, lads!
27:23In July 1999, a media scrum greeted guests
27:28arriving at a secluded castle in Ireland,
27:30the venue for David Beckham's marriage to Victoria Adams.
27:36The wedding offered the couple the chance to rehabilitate David's image
27:40after the disaster of the World Cup.
27:43They did so by selling exclusive coverage to OK Magazine.
27:51Richard Desmond, the legendary owner of OK Magazine,
27:54offered a million pounds for the pictures of the wedding.
27:57I had to go over and have this meeting with him,
27:59and I'm thinking, we've only been offered 125 grand by all the others.
28:04He said, there's only one proviso, Alan.
28:07You have to sign on the dotted line now.
28:09So I took my life in my hands, signed it away.
28:13The next morning, I finally get hold of Victoria,
28:15and there was this silence and the other energy.
28:17He said, Alan, tell me you signed it.
28:22I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, I did, actually, as it goes, you know.
28:25Sorry, lads.
28:28Then there's all the logistics of protecting the photographs.
28:33We'd go round the site to make sure there was no areas
28:37that people would be there.
28:38We'd literally be looking in the bushes,
28:40or someone could be hiding there.
28:43But there was a breach, and the sun splashed the first grainy images,
28:48including the couple on a pair of matching thrones.
28:54It confirmed a huge public appetite for a glimpse of the wedding,
28:59before OK Magazine published its official version.
29:05Every restaurant or bar, there'd be people passing one copy of the magazine around
29:10because it was sold out and you could only get one.
29:13I mean, I think Richard went on to earn millions of pounds out of these pictures.
29:17So it was a genius investment.
29:19And of course, David and Victoria are building up the biggest surprise ever.
29:23David was going to be wearing a purple suit.
29:38It was fun. It was a laugh. And all the thrones and stuff.
29:43You could argue maybe that was the birth of super celebrity era.
29:47Maybe it starts then.
29:50It's pretty grim, isn't it?
29:52Now, would we call that mauve?
29:55I think the shoes are mauve as well, aren't they?
29:59That's not right.
30:02You can look at the weddings of many, many, many celebrities.
30:07And because there is always an expectation that you have to be slightly,
30:12you have to turn everything up to 11, that it often goes wrong.
30:18This is fashion as entertainment.
30:21It's so fun.
30:23There he is, Barbie's Ken.
30:25But in fact, there's more credibility to these outfits than you might suspect.
30:31They're the work of Antonio Berardi,
30:34who was one of the real names of Court Britannia fashion.
30:38These are images that are impossible for any of us to forget.
30:44The now Mr. and Mrs. Beckham had even dressed their new baby, Brooklyn,
30:49in a matching outfit.
30:52The colour, along with the thrones and the setting,
30:55suggested a tongue-in-cheek nod to royalty.
31:00Going right back to Rome, where you could have, you know,
31:04purple border on your toga if you were very, very powerful.
31:09All the way through to the British royal family,
31:11where they've got this association with purple being the colour of royalty.
31:16It's a very purple picture.
31:18And David's kneeling on a flag, a purple flag,
31:23which looks like it's got gold embroidery.
31:24I'm presuming with their insignia on it.
31:27The whole setting of this photograph feels like they're in this royal estate
31:32where they've got this carcelated gatehouse behind them.
31:36And among the images that caught a lot of flack in the moment
31:39were images of these matching thrones.
31:42And I think the idea was they sat as the prince and princess on their matching thrones
31:47with this idea of them being the new royalty, Britain's new royal family,
31:52Prince David and Princess Victoria.
31:56The wedding photos were selling a fairytale royal romance,
32:00with Beckham cast as Prince Charming.
32:03Best man Gary Neville even wore a nod to an earlier Beckham fashion statement.
32:09But the images didn't go down well with everyone.
32:14They were attacked in the press for the extravagance of the wedding.
32:20But I think there was a lot of snobbery attached to it.
32:25And I think that there was an element of the press saying,
32:30oh, I'm sorry, I mean, really?
32:33You know, working class people behaving like this?
32:36It's a bit tacky, isn't it?
32:38And that was class snobbery.
32:44The wedding photos got tongues wagging,
32:47which was precisely what David and Victoria intended.
32:51He understood the power and value of an attention-grabbing image.
32:58From now on, he would lean into surprising the press and the public
33:02at every possible opportunity.
33:05Shall we talk about the haircut first and getting it out of the way?
33:07If you want to, go on.
33:09Beckham, from a very young age, enjoyed playing with his public image.
33:14You could tell that he enjoyed the attention
33:16and also the attention from the media.
33:19And we became complicit very, very quickly.
33:23New brand deals followed.
33:26From sunglasses...
33:29..to fizzy drinks.
33:32He was also finding less traditional ways
33:34to broaden the appeal of the Beckham brand.
33:41You have this gay icon too. The gays love you.
33:44And you talk...
33:45Well, they do. It's true, isn't it?
33:47I know, yeah.
33:47And that doesn't embarrass you, does it?
33:49No, not at all.
33:49No, not at all.
33:54Beckham was approached to appear on the cover
33:56of the leading gay men's lifestyle magazine, Attitude.
34:02Its editor was Adam Matera.
34:05We had done a poll with readers
34:08to find out who was the most flexible man at the time.
34:10And I think it was between Robbie Williams,
34:14Russell Crowe, who was huge in Gladiator at the time,
34:17and Beckham.
34:18And what we found was an overwhelming...
34:20I mean, I think we gave up after about the first ten minutes
34:23because it was like everyone was saying to Beckham,
34:25there was no contest.
34:40He dyed his hair specifically for the shoot,
34:42which we didn't even know he was going to do.
34:44So that was cool, really,
34:45because it gave another little twist to the whole thing.
34:48You'd have like a test Polaroid,
34:50and I remember them all being laid out on the table,
34:53and David coming over and us looking at them together,
34:55and David being very kind of proactive in kind of like,
34:59you know, I think we should do more like this,
35:00and really, you know, having an opinion
35:02and being participating in how the shoot should be.
35:07It was the first time that a gay magazine
35:09had had an exclusive photo shoot with a footballer,
35:11and certainly a footballer at their prime
35:13that was like the biggest star of the day.
35:16The idea of somebody coming from football,
35:19which was always seen as this, you know,
35:22bastion of real unreconstructed masculinity,
35:26would embrace his gay audience
35:28and actually do an exclusive cover shot for the magazine,
35:32was groundbreaking.
35:34And it represented a real shift, I think, in things,
35:38in culture opening up.
35:39It was seen that way. It really represented something,
35:42a moment in culture, I think.
35:47In the football world, it was very difficult to come out.
35:50Very few footballers did, and they were vilified for it.
35:55Attitudes towards homosexuality,
35:58and sexuality that, in any way that wasn't completely traditional,
36:03was kind of frowned upon.
36:06But Beckham couldn't give a toss about that.
36:10I genuinely think that he personally was unafraid,
36:12and I think his team followed his lead,
36:14and he knew that it would be good for his brand.
36:18This is another demographic which he can appeal to.
36:21He's got women, he's got gay men, he's got straight men.
36:24People either want to shag him or they want to be him.
36:27It was all, obviously, all part of a bigger PR plan that was going on,
36:32because his team were very strategic.
36:35It was important to hit every demographic,
36:39make sure that he was known, he was loved,
36:42he was, you know, elevated to every possible sector.
36:49Beckham was finding new ways to put his image to work,
36:52to expand his brand.
36:58And as he grabbed more media attention with a move to Real Madrid in Spain,
37:03he made another surprising transformation,
37:06from a commercial powerhouse into a work of art.
37:16My name is Sarah Howgate.
37:18I am the Senior Curator of the Contemporary Collections at the National Portrait Gallery.
37:25One of the most exciting parts of my role here is to work on the commissioning process.
37:35David Beckham was an obvious choice because he was such a phenomenal footballer,
37:41and he was very much in the news, in the public eye.
37:45And the idea came about that actually Sam Taylor-Johnson would be a great person for that commission.
37:52She was known for her very interesting portraits of male subjects,
37:58and this sort of questioning masculinity in the traditional sense.
38:05Sam Taylor-Johnson had recently produced a series of photos of famous actors,
38:11such as Laurence Fishburne and Daniel Craig, called Crying Men,
38:16showing a vulnerable side to them, at odds with tough guy stereotypes.
38:23In that spirit, she would now produce a portrait of David Beckham unlike any that had come before.
38:34It portrays David Beckham asleep in a hotel bedroom in Madrid.
38:43I really remember the first time Sam showed me the portrait.
38:47I was just really engaged, really enthralled by this beautiful piece of film,
38:54and the fact that at times it appears to be a still image, like a painting,
39:00and then suddenly he moves, and it becomes a moving image,
39:04and then it goes back to being a still image again.
39:07It's incredibly engaging to watch.
39:23It was lit with a single light source, and that gives it sort of an old master feeling.
39:33I'm thinking about an artist like Caravaggio,
39:36in that it has this dark and this shade and these beautiful warm hues.
39:44It's almost painterly in the way that it's been filmed.
39:49It is a very intimate view.
39:52He does appear to be asleep, and according to his mother Sandra,
39:56he was asleep, and he's doing who knows what.
40:00He's moving around, and it's a very intimate, sort of erotic at times image.
40:08He's really pushing the different ways that you can be seen to be a man.
40:12You know, as a sportsman, he also is the acme of what's understood
40:16to be the kind of masculine archetype.
40:18He's very physical, he works with his body, he's very muscular.
40:22And it's very interesting that these two elements really go together in the same person.
40:31Just three weeks before the video portrait was due to be unveiled,
40:35a very different image of Beckham was hitting the headlines.
40:39In this exclusive footage, ITV News has the first video images of Bex with a woman who claims to have
40:46been his lover.
40:48Rebecca Luz, his PA at the time, is set to spill yet more beans in a television interview this week.
40:54From a professional point of view, you just see this come out and think,
40:58goodness, this is going to run and run.
41:00Here was the golden boy with the golden relationship.
41:05Things might have been controversial on the field, but there wasn't controversy off the field.
41:10So it burst a bubble.
41:15Despite the allegations, which Beckham has always denied, back in London, the launch of Sam Taylor Johnson's video portrait went
41:23ahead as planned.
41:25We are for a moment allowed to join an intimate circle.
41:28Until recently, only Victoria, Brooklyn and Romeo apparently were allowed to gaze lovingly on this head rested on a pillow.
41:36Of course, it's been suggested there may have been a few others.
41:42I guess the press did pick up on the fact that he was sleeping in a hotel bedroom and that
41:48was used in some red top headlines.
41:51Now you too can sleep with David Beckham.
41:56Beckham's carefully curated public image had never been more under threat.
42:10But rather than hide away, his response was to use his body to tell a different story.
42:22My name is Platon.
42:24I'm a photographer and a storyteller.
42:28And I've photographed David Beckham quite a few times.
42:36I was invited to Madrid in 2006.
42:41By now, David is probably the world's most famous person.
42:49Fame is a machine that needs feeding.
42:51And even on a day off, there is no day off, you've got to keep going.
42:56So that's where I come in.
42:58And I was invited to go and take pictures of him.
43:02For the machine.
43:20It's really nice.
43:22It's epic.
43:25I often shoot with a wide angle lens.
43:28In this case, everything fell into place beautifully.
43:31Because the lens almost plays along with his stature and it broadens him even more.
43:38So it brings out this sort of power that he has without even flexing his muscles.
43:45In the way that he's being lit, they're really focusing in on the chiseled detail of his musculature.
43:51Within a couple of years of this portrait being taken, we start to see Beckham up there on our billboards
43:59advertising underpants for Armani.
44:02And he's there just in his briefs.
44:05And the main attraction, of course, is his chiseled body, which is very much presented almost as a kind of
44:10artwork for our admiration.
44:13It's a very deliberate evocation of classical sculpture that we all know from museums.
44:21But they're impeccably defined muscles.
44:24They're not meant to be attainable, real human bodies.
44:27They're meant to be absolute perfection.
44:30And, of course, in this era with this great emphasis on masculine, body beautiful, this ideal becomes something that people
44:39are actually expected or anticipated to have.
44:43It is like a Greek statue.
44:46It's statuesque.
44:48What's really interesting to me is the mystery of it, because he's not even looking at you.
44:54And we always think of David as looking at the camera, such a handsome man.
44:59I must have been crazy.
45:01But art is made of a series of stories that happen behind the scenes.
45:12I was taking pictures of David.
45:15Suddenly, the family arrive, and there's sort of family chaos.
45:21They all have this moment together.
45:24And for a little bit of privacy, they all turn around.
45:28So they're facing away from us.
45:30And they all have this beautiful group hug.
45:34And then afterwards, I approached Victoria.
45:38And I said, could I have your permission to recreate that for a formal picture?
45:45She said, I hope you don't mind.
45:47But I just want to be a mother today.
45:51But you know what?
45:52David will do a back shot.
45:54So she said, David, will you just turn around?
45:58He wants to do a picture of your back.
45:59So David said, OK.
46:01So I quickly ran on set, grabbed my camera, took maybe two or three frames of David.
46:12Something happened.
46:14Because in theory, he was alone now.
46:19And you would think that it's quite sad that his family aren't with him.
46:25But then you start looking at the tattoos on his back.
46:29And you realize that the love of his children, they're tattooed onto his back.
46:36Romeo, Cruz, Brooklyn.
46:42So, in many ways, it is a family picture.
46:51So, in many ways, it is a family picture.
47:09He's been a part of his father's.
47:11What Beckham has done since he stopped playing football should be taught at Harvard Business School.
47:16It's kind of amazing.
47:17He has managed to become a kind of institution, national treasure, and also still keeping his one foot in the
47:28kind of fashion world.
47:34David Beckham may wear the names of his family on his back.
47:39But now, he would also make them part of his brand.
48:01This is a rather beautiful shot, isn't it?
48:03And there is the line-up of Brand Beckham.
48:07Next to David is Anna Wintour, the iconic editor-in-chief of American Vogue, actually looking like she's enjoying the
48:17view of this beautiful, very powerful family.
48:22From a fashion perspective, this is very much a status image because seats on the front row of a fashion
48:27show are very sought after.
48:29And you don't have just one seat here.
48:32You have the entire family, including all four children.
48:35But what's really interesting is how styled this whole image is.
48:40The kids are beautifully dressed.
48:42The parents are beautifully dressed.
48:44Everybody's hair looks wonderful.
48:46They were all in not matching, but very complementary outfits.
48:50And this is really the Beckhams as a brand, as a family, as a brand.
48:56This shot, for me, sums up some of the journey of the Beckham family.
49:03From being Beckham, to being Beckham and Victoria, to being Beckham, Victoria and children.
49:11It's the whole family. They're coming as a package.
49:14You are projecting an image of a very wholesome, secure, perfect family unit.
49:22The problem is, as we all know, families are not perfect.
49:28Families are problematic.
49:30And there is a sense that you're sort of playing out the family in public.
49:37It's a real-life family drama that's become a worldwide obsession.
49:44In a six-page Instagram post, Brooklyn lays bare his true feelings.
49:50One of the most famous families on earth, rocked by a social media post.
49:57Using the family, if that isn't too harsh a word, as marketing and as brand building,
50:06I think that, I think that isn't as successful.
50:12There's something kind of wonderful about it, but it does sometimes feel exploitative.
50:19And potentially harmful.
50:23Over the next few years, Beckham's painstakingly constructed image would come under fire.
50:30As the man, famously of few words, saw some rude ones of his own leak to the press,
50:36revealing the ambition behind the brand.
50:39What next for David Beckham after those humiliating emails
50:42which showed he was cross about not getting a knighthood?
50:45It is claimed that David Beckham wrote to his PR representative,
50:49they're a bunch of, expletive, I expected nothing less.
50:54The fuss around the discovery of the emails, he didn't come out of that very well.
51:00Then in 2022, Beckham put at risk the hard work he'd done building a profile outside football,
51:06when he became an ambassador for the World Cup.
51:12Hi David, how is it to be in Qatar? Do you regret this partnership now?
51:17When he was the ambassador for the World Cup in Qatar,
51:20which has an appalling legacy in terms of gay rights,
51:23it's very draconian, very oppressive.
51:25The idea that David, who had been elevated his status,
51:29as seen as some kind of, like, gay icon, would then do that,
51:32it's kind of like...
51:36It's a, you know, it's not good.
51:39Beckham's association with Qatar was seen as a betrayal by many in the LGBTQ plus community,
51:46leading to comedian Joe Lycett taking matters into his own hands.
51:51I asked Attitude if I could shred it, and they were more than happy to oblige.
52:03There's a lot of controversy around Qatar,
52:06and safe talent managers don't want their clients
52:11to do deals with brands or in areas that could backlash.
52:15His team would have absolutely analysed all of that context
52:19and weighed up all of the pluses and the minuses.
52:22It's not going to be some random decision.
52:25Frank Beckham is a business. It's about making money.
52:28He commodified himself. He commodified his image.
52:30And so, if there's an opportunity to make money, he's going to take it.
52:35And I think, is it surprising? No.
52:37Is it morally objectionable? Absolutely.
52:43Beckham's reputation had hit a rocky patch.
52:46But his instinct for a memorable image hadn't deserted him.
52:50And later that year, it would help him once again to win back the hearts of the public,
52:55following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.
52:59These are some of the thousands upon thousands waiting to file by the coffin of Her Majesty the Queen.
53:08Amid this immense wave of gratitude and love for Queen Elizabeth, one of football's greatest stars, just one of the
53:17crowd.
53:20I thought it was actually one of the most amazing things that I've seen him do.
53:24When he stood in line after the Queen died, that ability to just be one of the people, have no
53:32special treatment and just pay his respects in a very patriotic way,
53:35that just blew everything else of negativity of anything that might have been going on away, because you admire him
53:41for making that decision and being so dedicated to his country.
53:48Some commentators sensed an ulterior motive for his actions.
53:53Some people did accuse David of exploiting her death.
53:57But if he genuinely wanted to show respect, then what other way was he going to do it?
54:04He's David Beckham, he's one of the most famous people in the world.
54:11Whatever his motivation, in 2025, Beckham achieved the royal recognition that meant so much to him, a knighthood.
54:25At the same time, he embraced a new identity that, on the surface, seemed far removed from his origins in
54:34East London.
54:38The only ever guest editor other than a royal, I believe.
54:48Oh, here we go.
54:52This image is amazing.
54:54The country squire, and his tweeds, and his shepherd's stick.
55:13It's so cheeky, this image, isn't it? With the tattoos, amazing tweeds, the geezer haircut.
55:20I mean, he makes the country look very rock and roll, I must say.
55:28This is Beckham's rather brilliant reinvention as country Beckham.
55:34Everything about this picture is spot on.
55:38He's got the right shooting jacket, he's got the right breeches, he's got the boots.
55:44Yeah, even the right shirt and tie.
55:47That is a good weave though, isn't it?
55:51I like the fact that he's shown in motion.
55:53So he's walking towards us, so he looks like he's coming to greet us.
55:57He's walking through his grounds, his land, and he's looking very proprietorial.
56:02So he's here presenting himself as a landowner.
56:06This absolutely fits into the portrait tradition of wealthy men being painted within the land that they own.
56:18And we think of people commissioning artists like Gainsborough to portray them surrounded by the trappings of their wealth.
56:26Looking very much like ancient aristocracy.
56:33With more than 88 million followers on Instagram, Beckham could now control the narrative to be all things to all
56:41people.
56:42Celebrating his new nobility image while also keeping his working class credentials alive.
56:48Posting a selfie in his favourite pie and mash shop as he shared the news of his knighthood with his
56:54mum and sister.
56:58Beckham has not relinquished his past at all.
57:01He's very proud of his past, proud of his family, proud of his origins.
57:07He has stretched the idea of what it means to be working class.
57:13During 30 years in front of the lens, David Beckham has used the power of images to transform himself.
57:20From talented footballer to global brand.
57:25And from Chingford lad to establishment gent.
57:30I think it's really interesting how he's pushed boundaries of what's considered normal or acceptable, particularly in terms of the
57:39male body and class and taste.
57:45He's empowered through success, through money and through adoration.
57:49Yes, by a very clever manipulation of his image.
57:54The access is extremely well managed that you get the feeling that you sort of see them.
58:00But do you really see them? I mean, who really knows?
58:04To live in the spotlight and to be constantly feeding a machine, you have to be really, really committed.
58:11And I think, you know, David has has proved to be probably one of the world's greatest celebrities who have
58:19mastered that.
58:21There have been a series of different scandals or sort of low-key scandals that happened around or could have
58:27been scandals with Beckham that always he keeps moving on.
58:32It's all about putting the right image out there at the right time.
58:35Remind people that you're an English gent. Remind people that you're a family man.
58:39The brand keeps moving on because people want to believe it.
58:43He's been embraced as this kind of national hero and people aren't going to let it go.
58:46Thank you very much.
59:16Thank you very much.