Eighty-four portraits from the Canberra gallery's equivalent in London will be on show. Where some big art shows appeal to connoisseurs, this one will be utterly democratic: anybody who is interested in people - and that means all of us - will have something and someone to react to.

If you stand and gaze at the small blue portrait of Amy Winehouse, you may well find yourself talking to her: "Amy, don't do it. Get back on the rails!"

Or look at David Beckham in his early twenties - innocent and boyish and bewildered, long before he became a money-spinning brand.

When the photograph was taken in 1998, the supreme practitioner of the beautiful game was being booed as "the most hated man in England". He had been sent off in the World Cup and so, according to the theory, got England knocked out of the contest.

But it was also the year in which he proposed to Victoria Adams, then a Spice Girl. The couple were dubbed "Posh and Becks".

So, stand in front of his portrait and wonder if you can see the bewilderment in his eyes.

And look at Shakespeare in the only portrait thought to have been painted from real life. What is going on behind those wise eyes? And what is the ring in his ear all about?

Or look into the eyes of Queen Elizabeth the First, a picture of power and (you might imagine) loneliness. There she is, adorned and fabulously bejeweled and yet a woman ruling alone.

And then turn the corner in the gallery and see Queen Elizabeth II in a hologram so that, on first glance, you think it must be her.

The paintings and photographs on show in Canberra from March 12 to July 17 are the cream of the world's greatest collection of portraits. They are the icons of our times and past times - from Shakespeare to Winehouse, in fact.

They come to Canberra during the refurbishment of the National Portrait Gallery in London. It is a coup for the Australian gallery.

And a coup for the director Karen Quinlan, who has formed a productive relationship with the name-sake gallery in London.

She thinks the show comes at just the right time.

"So much was cancelled in the pandemic, and this is an opportunity for Australians to come to the national capital and experience something which is beautiful and compelling," she says.

She's particularly proud to have the portrait of Shakespeare which was the first picture acquired by the London gallery when it was founded in 1856. It's thought the portrait was painted from life by one John Taylor.

There is an affinity between these two galleries in London and Canberra. Both have the same philosophy: portrait galleries need to be crowded with citizens craning their necks and thinking and discussing.

This was not always the way. There was a time when the world's first national portrait gallery in London seemed to be devoted to grand men astride horses: kings and queens, dukes and duchesses.

And then along came Roy Strong, the son of a lowly commercial traveller, described by the son as "a man I never cried a tear for, even at his funeral". Sir Roy Strong, as he became, said his childhood home was "without books".

But by virtue of his immense talent, Sir Roy became director of the British National Portrait Gallery at the age of 32 - and made it interesting.

Rather than the men on horses, the gallery showed portraits by Cecil Beaton, the photographer who took pictures of everybody in 60s Britain from the Beatles down.

On one morning in 1968, Beaton shot the Queen in the morning and Mick Jagger in the afternoon.

When our own National Portrait Gallery opened, initially in Old Parliament House in Canberra, this idea of portraits for the people infused its philosophy.

"Rather than a hall of fame of 'important' people, visitors to the National Portrait Gallery at Old Parliament House experienced the mixed and intriguing bag of individual stories - good or bad, lofty or humble, famous or obscure - that punctuate Australian history," as the promotional blurb put it.

In December, 2008, the new home opened, and the building embodied the spirit: it is elegant and modern and welcoming.

The story behind some of the pictures in the new show gives an extra bit of interest (what the exhibition's curator, Joanna Gilmour, calls the "many quirky, tragic and fascinating stories behind the works in this exhibition".)

She cites the group portrait of the Bronte sisters - Anne (writer of Agnes Grey), Emily (Wuthering Heights) and Charlotte (Jane Eyre) - painted by their brother, Branwell, when he was 17. It was lost and then rediscovered in 1914, folded up on top of a cupboard.

The show is divided into themes: Fame, Power, Love and Loss, Identity, Innovation, and Self.

Sometimes they surprise: Anna Wintour, for example, is categorised under "power", presumably because of the way she, as editor-in-chief of the American Vogue magazine since 1988, has determined fashion.

The headings mean portraits from across the centuries hang near each other, making the viewer think about the ways fame, for example, has changed and not changed.

But mostly, it's great to just stand and gaze and think - to commune with famous people as human beings, whether it's the Beatles or Queens Elizabeth I and II.

Look into the eyes of the writer Radclyffe Hall who wrote The Well of Loneliness, and wonder what it must have been like in 1928 to face the fury after writing a novel depicting a lesbian relationship sympathetically.

Stand in front of Nelson Mandela in awe.

Look at Bowie without his make up and then look at him as Ziggy Stardust.

Or swoon in front of boyish Mick Jagger, his face poking out from the fur-lined hood of an anorak. It's not the usual strutting rock star but a quieter, more private person.

Have you ever seen lips more luscious? The portrait is almost kissable!

Above all: go.