Richard Burton

I recently watched ‘Burton and Taylor’ starring Dominic West and Helen Bonham Carter on BBC4 which tells the story of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor’s last professional work together on Noel Coward’s ‘Private Lives’ in 1983. I really liked it. Good writing, set design, direction and acting. With my interest piqued I thought I’d see how far West nailed Richard Burton’s deliciously deep accent via YouTube (he did a pretty good job) and what started as thirty seconds of research turned into a whole evening of entertainment as I sat enthralled throughout Dick Cavett’s interview with Richard Burton on his show back in 1980. Watching it made me realise how far away we are from good interviews on TV these days. Parkinson is the only talk show host that came close to Dick Cavett for actually letting their guest talk. And talk he does. Richard Burton comes across as an intelligent, thoughtful, articulate, entertaining, sad, honest and talented man. Watch it.