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Nostalgic but not definitive Dusty...
Dusty - Full Circle is a 50-minute documentary made for TV in 1994. It’s typical BBC3 fodder - an easy watch, but an experience you wouldn’t feel the necessity to preserve as a permanent feature of your dvd collection.
It’s easy to forget that Dusty Springfield was an icon who was up there with the greats of the sixties - holding her own with the best the States had to offer. And from that point of view, this is a fitting reminder of how she shared the bill with the likes of Martha Reeves and The Vandellas and The Supremes, and worked with the likes of Bacharach and David, and Goffin and King. And then there’s her duet with Hendrix on a live version of Mocking Bird on her sixties TV show Dusty. Heady stuff.
What you get for your dollar here is a collection of rare(?) footage spanning Dusy’s career from the early days through to her collaborations with The Pet Shop Boys in the eighties. Unfortunately it’s not linked by any insightful narrative putting the material into context. Instead we get a mock interview by French & Saunders hamming up their fawning, bickering, and mistaken celeb routine. Frankly, it’s not dated well and detracts rather than adds to the package (although Jennifer Saunder’s impersonation in the final credits complete with bad wig and fakes eyelashes is still very funny).
On the plus side, this is a great reminder of just how great Dusty was and what a wonderful selection of wigs she donned throughout her career. But as a lasting tribute it falls short of the mark.
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Review by Peter Whalley
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