One wishes the show had a soundtrack of Beaton commenting on his sitters, about whom he gave vivid, telling, details. He described his great friend Mona — Mrs Harrison Williams — as having a complexion of “pink, and wet, marble” and on meeting Audrey Hepburn noticed “her child-like head, as compact as a coconut, with its cropped hair and wispy, monkey-fur, fringe”. Even his on-off inamorata, Greta (which he always pronounced Grayta) Garbo, of whom there are strangely few images on view, has a “knife-like mouth with lips permanently moistened by her adder-like tongue”. He could be cutting too. During a sitting for Coco, Katharine Hepburn heard Cecil say he needed some shaving foam. She barked: “Why can’t you men just use soap and water like my father?” Beaton purred “Maybe that’s why you have such rough skin, Kate dear.”
