ELTON CHAT FAILS TO DIG DEEP
REVIEW
HE DOES not write his own lyrics but Sir Elton John is a born story-teller. A difficult childhood, drugs, cancer, more drugs, famous mates – all these and more came out in shiny anecdotes, wrapped in gift paper, as Graham Norton cosied up in his host’s Nice villa and supplied the gentlest of prompts.
Elton John: Uncensored wasn’t so much an interview as a payment of homage to one of British music’s most enduring talents (pictured).
There was a lot to pack in to a mere 60 minutes and there was an inevitable feeling of skimming stones when, at times, you wanted to dive into deeper waters. For example, one of the many
Elton John: Uncensored BBC1
HH✩✩✩ bumps in Elton’s back catalogue of a life story was his 1984 marriage to Renate Blauel, which came after he’d been in a relationship with his manager John Reid for some years. But what did this turbulent period in his sexuality warrant in Uncensored? ‘A surprise wedding hit the headlines – and the divorce courts,’ chirruped Norton’s voiceover. And that was all. It got more mileage in the Rocketman film.
Other chapters got similarly short shrift. Princess Diana, Michael Jackson and John
Lennon were all reduced to ghostly bit-part cameos in a story that placed Elton very much centre-stage as he pulled the strings in an interview that repeatedly pulled punches.
Maybe Norton has spent too long doing bite-sized joshing on his chat show, but every time he sailed close to a controversial wind he changed tack, acknowledging that Elton was the captain fantastic of this ship.
Not that it wasn’t entertaining. There were moving stories of how the singer came late to fatherhood, funny stories about toupée worship and painful recollections of making peace with his mother.
But did we know Elton John any better at the end of it? Did we Crocodile Rock as like.
If they’d called it Elton John: Isn’t He Great that would have hit the mark. But Uncensored? Not even close.