Why no one exploits their fame quite like David Beckham

Despite revelations about his life with Victoria, his celebrity friends and that alleged affair 20 years ago, David Beckham’s new Netflix documentary shows what is really at the heart of Brand Beckham, writes Jim White. The answer? Cold, hard cash

With David Beckham’s stewardship, Inter Miami fixtures have become must-see events for the A-list (AP)

Watching Beckham – the new four-part documentary series about England’s most renowned tattoo enthusiast and his pop star-turned-designer wife – it is notable how often the inked-up one complains about the constant invasion of his privacy.

It is, David suggests, the inevitable corollary of a life of celebrity (though, in truth, he doesn’t use the exact term “corollary”). Even as we see him in his kitchen, cleaning things up at the end of an evening with an obsessive compulsive zeal, so meticulous even the inside of his candle sticks get a polish, he is moaning about never having a private moment. Like his royal counterpart Prince Harry, it soon becomes clear Beckham is not remotely shy about raising issues of prying and intrusion straight down the lens of a television camera.

But before we reach for the irony metre, it is only fair to point out that what Beckham is really whinging about is uncontrolled invasions of privacy. Ones in which he has his finger on the record button are something quite different.