The Light We Carry review: Michelle Obama shows why she is the most impactful first lady since Jacqueline Kennedy

Oprah Winfrey has them in her yellow trouser suit and possibly in her yellow polo neck as well. Oprah wears white pointy shoes under her yellow trouser suit, and Michelle wears white runners.

Both have their hair long. Both have gold drop earrings. Oprah is in one of her thin phases at the moment.

Michelle Obama - can she do nothing wrong? She’s so beautiful, wise and self-aware that all we can do is curl up and listen to her tell us about how we can all be beautiful, wise and self-aware too. That’s whatThe Light We Carry (Netflix) is all about.

In 2018, Barack and Michelle Obama signed a multimillion dollar deal with Netflix, and this extended interview with Oprah Winfrey, no less, is presumably part of it.

We all know that the chances of either Jill Biden or Melania Trump being given a similar platform are somewhat remote. No first lady has had this type of impact since Jacqueline Kennedy.

You’re either on board with the Oprah and Michelle school of self love or you are not. Michelle has written a book, coincidentally called The Light We Carry, and has been touring the United States to promote it.

This interview was recorded on the last night of that tour, in Los Angeles. “Are you ready to make some noise for Michelle Obama?” says the band leader or the master of ceremonies. It was rock star stuff.

Oprah introduced Michelle as “Our forever first lady”.

Michelle and Oprah are friends and hug a lot. They met over a vase of pink flowers on the table between them.

Luckily, I was watching this with my mother, who doesn’t hold with that type of thing.

“She looks so young,” said my mother of Michelle, and indeed she does.

Together Michelle and Oprah, two intelligent women, tiptoed around the issues of race in America and Donald Trump. “Weaponisation of fear is a dangerous thing,” said Michelle as Oprah nodded.

“There’s a difference between a slap on the wrist and the knee on the neck” said Michelle, as Oprah kept nodding.

You couldn’t help wondering who they were trying to protect. White people, I suppose.

It was interesting to hear about how the fiery Michelle and the factual Barack fight: “Don’t come to me with your bullet points…”

And how she was angry with him for 10 years of their 30-year marriage: “It coincided with the birth of the children.”

She was bracing about how little preparation there is for modern marriage, apart from the bride ordering her third dress for the wedding day: “Y’all spend way too much on weddings.”

She seemed to be frank about how awful her first months in the White House were. As the first black first family, she said, they both knew that they could not “afford to screw this up”.

“And you didn’t, not once,” said Oprah, and started to cry.

So it is a mixture, if one can put this way, of high and low.

Michelle’s ambitions for her children are pretty lofty : “I want our kids to be happy with who they are…”

“I hope it keeps fine for you,” said my mother.

Unfortunately, Michelle has no political ambitions for herself. “I never expressed any interest in politics,” she said.

You could hear the sigh of relief emanating from a million Republican lungs.

The same day that this interview dropped, Joe Biden announced that he is to run for US president again. Michelle and Oprah did a lot of hugging and then walked past the vase of pink roses and back to their beautiful lives.