The Body Next Door; Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes

“The Body Next Door could have been concocted in a lab with me in mind as its ideal viewer – but there’s plenty in there for people less rabidly interested in human weirdness than I. Combining the claustrophobia of a hermetic small town with a family mystery spanning generations, and the thrill of hearsay with rigorous investigation, the series’ first episode set a sky-high bar in a genre where freshness can feel rare as a hen’s dental records.”
Emily Watkins, The i

“Generally, good true-crime TV requires three things: pace, clarity and some moral boundaries. This addictively watchable three-parter is certainly pacy – the case itself is so convoluted, surprising and sweeping (it traverses the globe, and five decades) that there’s no need for any infuriatingly glacial recapping or other filler.”
Rachael Aroesti, The Guardian

“Episode one seems a tad slow, stretching things out with comments from residents. But pay attention, because some of what they say proves important later on. By episode two, you can see why the film-makers were drawn to this story: solving the mystery involves an unexpected detour and a shocking, desperately sad case of child abandonment.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“The story gets stranger and sadder and darker than you could imagine. If it were a novel it would seem too far-fetched.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“However partial, and however little new material it has to offer, even for the amateur fan like me, the film remains a heady treat. Because it is about Elizabeth Taylor. They don’t make them like they used to – and they probably never will again.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Taylor was the real deal. The prospect of merely listening to Elizabeth Taylor seems to miss the point of her. We want to see her smouldering on film, or gaze into those eyes. Luckily, the film-makers know this. So the tapes – recordings of her 1964 interview sessions with her biographer, Richard Meryman – play out while we’re lavished with clips from Taylor’s films and newsreel of her looking fabulous.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph