Turner prized
15 ★★★★
On Sky Documentaries tonight at 9pm. Also available on NOW and altitude.film
There’s no other way to tell the story, says Tina Turner in this riveting documentary about her toxic first marriage and her reinvention as a rock singer.
It’s taken decades for the star, born Annie Mae Bullock, to accept what she calls her “reality”. She never wanted to be defined by the harrowing abuse she suffered at the hands of her first husband Ike Turner and had perhaps naively hoped that her
TWISTED With Ike in 1975 1986 autobiography I, Tina would draw a line under the whole story.
When the book was turned into a biopic in 1993, she couldn’t watch it. She wanted to promote the film and we see her try to smile through a press conference with actress
Angela Bassett. But she found the questions hard to bear and this film is borne out of the same contradiction.
Ike again features heavily in a documentary exploring Tina’s struggle to escape his shadow. But this isn’t a film about a victim, it’s a rousing and deeply moving story of a survivor.
You may feel like you have heard all this before but directors Dan Lindsay and TJ Martin offer fresh insights and a new appreciation of a remarkable human being.
The first half focuses on how she came to “live a life of death” with Ike, a violent, pathetic man riven with insecurity. The second half charts her global success as a rock singer in her late 40s, fighting ageism and astonishing racism. This time, it was Britain that made her.
We hear how she initially hated What’s Love Got To Do With It, a pop song written for Bucks Fizz, which she transformed into a rock anthem.
Her husband Erwin Bach thinks this film will provide “closure”. It seems the 81-year-old has finally found peace.
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This isn’t a film about a victim, it’s a deeply moving story of a survivor