Britt Eckland: Britt on Britt

It’s very annoying when a fellow audience member keeps talking throughout a performance. It’s bad Fringe etiquette and, frankly, it's just rude. Well this is what the man next to me watching Britt on Britt did throughout her set. Not intent on putting up with this for the entire duration of the show, I turn around to ask him to shut up in my sternest whisper – only to realise it is John Cleese. Suddenly, I don’t care how off putting it is; a Bond star and comedy legend watching a Bond girl’s show - I’m just happy to listen in.

Britt Eckland played opposite Roger Moore in The Man With The Golden Gun, she was also married to Peter Sellers, dated Rod Stewart (who never went on stage without wearing her underwear), and is close friends with Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne. In Britt on Britt, the sixties sex symbol, tells us the story of her life detailing her experiences from 45 years in show-business.

Eckland herself is a competent performer, but nothing spectacular. She slightly fumbles her lines and the show comes across as anything but spontaneous – it is clearly rehearsed and meticulously prepared. Eckland also structures her show, not chronologically or according to her work as an actress, but around her various boyfriends. To this there is a tinge of sadness and it is clear that, first and foremost she still sees herself overshadowed by the limelight of her more famous significant others.

There are interesting quip pets of celebrity life in the set – tales from partying with Cher, to the inside story to her break-up with Sellers. However, Britt on Britt is a little self-absorbed and as she marches off with her pet Chihuahua Tequila – it seems as if, for Eckland, the whole experience is little more than a moderately witty, self-validating exercise. For the record, I don’t think Cleese would agree with me – he seemed to be loving it.