Elizabeth Taylor: England’s Other Elizabeth

Coinciding with Elizabeth being made a Dame, BBC One’s long-running documentary series, Omnibus, celebrated her incredible life, career, and philanthropic work in Elizabeth Taylor: England’s Other Elizabeth. As narrator Nigel Hawthorne points out, “the talented actress has sometimes been overlooked amongst all the headlines.” England’s Other Elizabeth helps redress the balance. It marks the first time Elizabeth was interviewed for a documentary about herself, and in it she “discusses her life, career and evolution as a performer”. Angela Lansbury, Shirley MacLaine, Rod Steiger, Dr. Mathilde Krim, and Wesleyan University’s Jeanine Basinger are also interviewed.

Elizabeth expresses a wish to act again, but adds that “I think they’re afraid of me. I mean, I can’t think why, I’ve only broken my back three times in the last two years.” Shirley MacLaine reveals that Carrie Fisher has written a script for her, Elizabeth, Debbie Reynolds, and either Lauren Bacall or Julie Andrews, called These Old Broads. (The documentary was later updated to include a clip from the TV film, which was released less than a year after the documentary first aired, and would be Elizabeth’s final on camera acting appearance on the small, or big, screen.)

“She is as famous today as she ever was,” says Basinger in the documentary’s coda. “That’s the level of her celebrity, that is what is unique about her. She transcends her own work. We don’t need her work, we just need her. That’s really the mark of the most remarkable movie star. The last of the great royal movie stars of the Hollywood studio system: Elizabeth Taylor.”

‍England’s Other Elizabeth later aired on PBS’s Great Performances in the United States and Canada.