Peter Sellers: The Dark Side Of The Goon
Documentary about the life and career of the Legendary Comedy icon Peter Sellers.
An intimate portrait of Peter Sellers, a comic genius and one of Britain's greatest ever comedy actors, with previously unseen rare home movie footage of him at play.
Sellers was a complex man: his personal life often dramatic. His friends recall his obsessions with his leading ladies, superstitions, and a complicated relationship with his devoted mother. Plus, contributors celebrate his multifaceted brilliance.
An intimate portrait of Peter Sellers, a comic genius and one of Britain's greatest ever comedy actors, with previously unseen rare home movie footage of him at play.
Sellers was a complex man: his personal life often dramatic. His friends recall his obsessions with his leading ladies, superstitions, and a complicated relationship with his devoted mother. Plus, contributors celebrate his multifaceted brilliance.
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00:00:00He's been dubbed the man of a hundred faces, the best voice actor of all time.
00:00:11I have called you here because we are in a very, very grave position.
00:00:19Most famous for his role as bumbling Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther films, more than
00:00:2440 years after his death, Peter Sellers is still regarded as one of the most influential
00:00:29comic performers ever.
00:00:30You're playing with fire if you dip at night.
00:00:31My goodness, I haven't seen that before.
00:00:32I mean, I have a name of being very difficult, I'm not difficult at all, I just cannot take
00:00:45mediocrity, I just cannot take it on any level.
00:00:48Talented, ambitious, full of contradictions, his personal life was often as dramatic as
00:00:54it was on screen.
00:00:56I guess one had to expect the unexpected with Peter.
00:01:01Peter Sellers was a miracle.
00:01:03He could be anybody.
00:01:05He could be a man, he could be a woman, he could do any accent.
00:01:09You didn't know who Peter Sellers was going to be next.
00:01:13From humble beginnings in British entertainment, his talent brought him to the forefront of
00:01:18pioneering radio and TV comedy to international Hollywood stardom.
00:01:23His career had highs and lows, great highs and great lows, so that makes him fascinating.
00:01:28He packed a lot into a short life.
00:01:31Even today, Sellers continues to inspire new generations.
00:01:37As a comic watching Peter Sellers, I think what you've got to admire is his bravery of
00:01:42commitment.
00:01:43There's a lot to be learned from watching somebody like that.
00:01:55Undoubtedly the role that will forever be associated with Peter Sellers and has brought
00:01:59laughter to millions is Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau.
00:02:05I think Inspector Clouseau is the character that he is best known for.
00:02:09And what is absolutely crucial to why that is funny is that he has no idea that he is
00:02:14funny and that other people might be laughing at him.
00:02:28In Clouseau, you've got a lot of humour from his ridiculous French accents and ways of
00:02:32pronouncing things.
00:02:40So it works very funnily on that level.
00:02:42And then you've got the physical comedy things he did, spilling drinks and getting into a
00:02:47mess while he's trying to be cool and suave with a woman.
00:02:56When I think of Sellers, I think clowning is one of the first words that comes to mind
00:02:59because he was so physically in his characters.
00:03:04They weren't just painted on, he embodied them completely.
00:03:08As soon as you can see Inspector Clouseau trying to think seriously about something,
00:03:11you know you're only seconds away from catastrophe.
00:03:14And he spins a globe, I think.
00:03:19It's the anticipation of the action that's next.
00:03:23Spins a globe, turns around, talks to his colleague, then puts his hand on the globe.
00:03:33It's beautiful pranking.
00:03:39Yes, that is why I have always failed where others have succeeded.
00:03:42For me, the greater the urge, the greater the challenge.
00:03:48And as always, I accept the challenge.
00:03:51Well, I am off to Munich.
00:03:58That's the cleverness, I think, of Inspector Clouseau, is that the character itself actually
00:04:04has quite a big ego, and he's very self-assured and completely incompetent.
00:04:11So those two polar opposites, that gap in the middle is where the comedy lies.
00:04:16Yes, yes. I was known as the pavlova of the parallels, yes.
00:04:24He's inspecting the parallel bars just before he's about to interview people about a murder.
00:04:32And again, it's that his ego comes out.
00:04:34You know, oh, the bars, I was a bit of a champion on the bars.
00:04:37And you know as soon as he says that, that, you know, wait for it, wait for it.
00:04:45Oh, it's great. The timing is just superb.
00:04:49Even the outtakes from the Pink Panther films have gained cult status
00:04:53and reveal Seller's genius for spontaneity.
00:04:57What makes Peter Sellers doing Inspector Clouseau so great is he was allowed to improvise.
00:05:05And that was his greatest, one of his greatest strengths.
00:05:09You never knew what Inspector Clouseau was going to say or do next.
00:05:14And that's what made it so funny, is the unpredictability.
00:05:18Peter often brought in his friend, Graham Stark, as a regular sidekick in a variety of cameo roles.
00:05:26Peter liked to work with people he knew.
00:05:29And he particularly liked working with Graham. They were very much in tune.
00:05:34My name is Professor Guy Gadbois, Medieval Castle Authority from Marseille.
00:05:40Tell me, do you have a ring?
00:05:44I do not know what a ring is.
00:05:47And that was really funny.
00:05:49Of course, the poor director, you know, they just giggled all the time.
00:05:56Ah.
00:05:58Guten Tag.
00:06:00Guten Tag.
00:06:02My name is John Cassavetes. I'm interested in motor noise.
00:06:06Graham was playing, he's an inevitable old man.
00:06:09And that joke, I think, has become really famous.
00:06:13Does your dog bark?
00:06:16No.
00:06:18Oh.
00:06:20No, it's a doggie.
00:06:24Subsequently, Benstown gets bitten by the dog.
00:06:26I thought you said your dog did not bite.
00:06:28That is not my dog. I mean, it is...
00:06:31It's so funny still.
00:06:33I thought you said your dog did not bite.
00:06:35That is not my dog.
00:06:38Inspector Clouseau went on to become the biggest, most popular on-screen character Peter Sellers ever played.
00:06:47And what is it about him that people still keep going back to?
00:06:51You desperately want him to succeed, but you just love it when he fails.
00:06:55Hollywood stardom emerged from Peter's lifelong passion for filmmaking.
00:07:00But his rarely seen home movies reveal that his early years were a world away from the glamour of the big screen.
00:07:06And capture, too, the nature of Sellers' intense and bizarre relationship with his doting mother, Peg.
00:07:13He would say, oh, my darling Peg, I love you, my darling.
00:07:18And she would say, my darling Peter, I will always love you till my dying day.
00:07:23And this would go on endlessly.
00:07:32Sellers' love of filmmaking extended to his remarkable home movies
00:07:36that present an intimate portrait of the man behind the many faces.
00:07:41Sellers was very interested in photography and filming
00:07:46and a huge amount of his home movies survived.
00:07:51Well, what have we got here then?
00:07:54Ah, you're the newlyweds, aren't you?
00:07:57What's your name?
00:07:59Hmm?
00:08:00What's your name?
00:08:01Mr and Mrs Pearls.
00:08:03I know your first names. You like knowing your cousins' names, you know?
00:08:06My name's Reg.
00:08:07My name's Lena.
00:08:09We used to make home movies every weekend at my house.
00:08:14And we would think they were, we'd show them in the evening
00:08:18and we'd think they were very funny.
00:08:20Probably if one saw them now, we'd think they were absolutely horrendous.
00:08:26Even in his home movies, Peter was a natural showman.
00:08:30And with a theatrical upbringing, performing was in his blood.
00:08:35Peter Sellers was born in South Sea, Hampshire, in 1925.
00:08:40The son of travelling variety performers,
00:08:43his show business career began almost immediately.
00:08:48You came from a really incredible line of theatrical people, didn't you?
00:08:53When, in fact, did you make your first stage appearance?
00:08:57We were in South Sea and we were doing a show
00:09:02We were in South Sea and a comedian in the show, I can't think of his name,
00:09:07but I think about two weeks after I was born,
00:09:10he took me on the stage and, you know, presented me to the audience
00:09:13because Mum was well-loved in the show, you know?
00:09:16And that was the first time I actually apparently went on the stage.
00:09:21Sellers belonged to this almost itinerant musical family
00:09:26that travelled round the provinces,
00:09:29round these old theatres, round the coast, end of the pier.
00:09:33And that's where he began, in this rather ghostly world,
00:09:37of musical on his last legs.
00:09:42What kind of an act did they do, Peter? What did Mum do?
00:09:46I think this was a big screen, you see?
00:09:48No.
00:09:49A projection screen. Mum used to stand there in white tights.
00:09:52It was a real daring thing then, you see?
00:09:55And they used to project slides onto Mum
00:09:59and various famous characters from history, you see, as the slides changed.
00:10:02And my Dad would be playing the old Joanna in the front there,
00:10:05or something like that.
00:10:09What about your first performance on stage?
00:10:12I got a job in an uncle's theatre at Ilfracombe.
00:10:15So I was an apprentice sweeping out after each performance.
00:10:18And then after that, I used to take tickets on the door.
00:10:21Then I gradually progressed my way up to playing small parts
00:10:24like, your carriage is without, things like that, or, hello!
00:10:27Or something like this, you know, minor diddly-poo thing.
00:10:33I think that itinerant childhood he had,
00:10:36going from this town to that,
00:10:39to these sort of decaying old theatres,
00:10:42it was rootless, and he was always rootless.
00:10:45He never had a home.
00:10:47He always ended up living in hotel suites.
00:10:52I really didn't like that period of my life as a kid.
00:10:56I didn't like the touring.
00:10:58I didn't like the smell of grease paint.
00:11:01Used to hit you when you went into any stage door.
00:11:04Baritones with beer on their breath and make-up on their collar.
00:11:08Always deep voices.
00:11:10Hello, little sonny, how are you?
00:11:12All right, little boy, dear little boy?
00:11:14Who is he? Who is he?
00:11:16Didn't like that.
00:11:18This is probably why I hated being in the theatre.
00:11:20Really? Yeah.
00:11:22Peter often captured his intense relationship
00:11:26with his mother, Peg, on camera.
00:11:28Peg was convinced of her son's talent
00:11:31and had big aspirations for his future,
00:11:34to rise above his humble origins.
00:11:37Peter had been encouraged in his early days
00:11:40when he used to go on the halls.
00:11:43I think she was the person who believed in him
00:11:46and encouraged him.
00:11:48His relationship with his mother was very complicated.
00:11:51She was almost like Sellers's double, in a strange way.
00:11:54Her ambition for him pushed him on throughout his life.
00:11:57Good evening.
00:11:59The antique and courier shop.
00:12:01Peg and Peter even tried their hand at a short sketch.
00:12:05Neither mother nor son could keep a straight face for long.
00:12:08And she's going to give us her opinions
00:12:13of several pieces of antique Georgian silver
00:12:16which have been obtained for Mr Peter Sellers
00:12:20by Mr David Mappin.
00:12:23I should think about the 17th century.
00:12:26Well, I tell you, in fact...
00:12:29To say it was a curious relationship it was.
00:12:32He would say, oh, my darling Peg, I love you, my darling.
00:12:36And she would say, oh, my darling Peter, I love you.
00:12:40Well, I love you too, Peg.
00:12:42My darling Peter, I will always love you till my dying day.
00:12:46And this would go on endlessly.
00:12:48And then they'd get rather cross
00:12:52and Peter would suddenly think, oh, God.
00:12:55But it was always Peg, my darling Peg.
00:13:03Like Peg, Peter Sellers' father, Bill, also trod the boards.
00:13:07But his act was as a touring musician.
00:13:10And it soon became clear that Peter had inherited
00:13:13an innate sense of timing and rhythm,
00:13:16as can be seen in this remarkable early performance.
00:13:22Before you became an actor, you became a musician, didn't you?
00:13:26You were a drummer.
00:13:28You learnt music from your father, didn't you?
00:13:31Yes, Dad was convinced always I was going to be a road sweeper.
00:13:35Very encouraging of Dad, you see.
00:13:37You'd turn out the bloody road sweeper, I tell you that.
00:13:40Is he auctioning? Yeah. Lovely.
00:13:43Bill was sometimes away for long stretches,
00:13:46but he's captured here in a rare family moment.
00:13:49Can you remember a song that Dad taught you from those days?
00:13:53He was teaching me to play the banjo.
00:13:56Legend had it that he taught George Formby.
00:13:59I don't know whether he ever did, but he used to boast about it.
00:14:07I've got an idea, soon she'll be
00:14:10Cooking my breakfast, wait and see
00:14:13I haven't told her, she hasn't told me
00:14:17We know it just the same
00:14:19Peter Sellers played in a live band, playing all the musicals,
00:14:23as did his father, so I always think that,
00:14:26yes, he was a great genius at improvisation,
00:14:29but he got it from somewhere.
00:14:31He's put a lot of that rhythm, he's put that into comedy.
00:14:42When war broke out, Peter was drafted into the RAF,
00:14:47where his theatrical talent was exploited to the full
00:14:50in the Entertainment Division's legendary gang show.
00:14:54He features here in some extraordinary early footage playing the banjo.
00:15:00Sellers, like so many funny people of his generation,
00:15:03learnt his craft during the war, entertaining the troops.
00:15:10He was in the Air Force, and he went to Burma,
00:15:15travelled around Burma and India.
00:15:20The gang shows during the war were a great way of young comedians
00:15:25getting their opportunity with a very difficult audience,
00:15:29because they would be performing to soldiers
00:15:32who were probably having a very tough time of it,
00:15:35and they had to make them laugh and cheer them up,
00:15:38and so it was quite a good training.
00:15:41It was also an opportunity to test out his talents for mimicry,
00:15:45especially when it came to sending up authority figures.
00:15:50I used to impersonate anybody and anything I could find,
00:15:53mainly officers, and one night, I remember,
00:15:56we were in Agartala in Assam, and it was Christmas Eve,
00:15:59and I'd never spent Christmas Eve in a hot country,
00:16:02and I was far away from home, and I was thinking,
00:16:05my mum wants me at home!
00:16:07And I thought, a twit to sit here when I could be in the officers' mess!
00:16:10What am I doing here, you see?
00:16:12So I found some officers' insignia, Air Commodores,
00:16:16and put some blanket on, wandered into the officers' mess.
00:16:19It'd be about three in the morning now.
00:16:21There was only one lone old twit in there, sitting in the corner,
00:16:24and he looked at me, and as far as I can recall,
00:16:27he said, what are you doing here?
00:16:30I said, good Lord, you're frightfully young for an Air Commodore.
00:16:35You're young to have white hair, too.
00:16:38I said, can you see that room?
00:16:40He said, yes, I see in the dark, you know.
00:16:42It's all this rum, and I thought,
00:16:44hello, he's going to rumble me any minute,
00:16:46and I'm going to be in the old thing.
00:16:51After the war, Peter began to try his luck
00:16:54in a spirited early act as an Impressionist.
00:16:58When he was demobbed, did bits of variety himself,
00:17:03going like his mother, like his father, around his theatres,
00:17:07desperate to do the next stage up from that, which was radio.
00:17:14In the post-war era, BBC Radio was a hotbed of talent,
00:17:18and Peter Sellers was desperate to get a break on the airwaves.
00:17:22I was getting nowhere fast, you know,
00:17:24and I just thought I'd do it.
00:17:26You know, you do things at certain times in your life,
00:17:28you've got to get ahead, you've got to rumble.
00:17:30He decided to take matters into his own hands,
00:17:32and conned his way in by impersonating Kenneth Horne,
00:17:36the urbane host of popular comedy shows for the BBC Home Service.
00:17:41So I phoned up and I said, listen, Roy,
00:17:43I'm phoning up because I know that new show you've got on,
00:17:45what is it, Showtime or something?
00:17:47Dickie and I were at a cabaret the other night,
00:17:49saw an amazing young fellow called Peter,
00:17:51what was his name? He said Peter Sellers.
00:17:53Sellers, Sellers, Sellers.
00:17:55I think it would be very good if you probably had him in the show.
00:17:59Just a little tip, a little tip.
00:18:01We'd just go round looking, you know.
00:18:03He said, well, that's very nice of you, you know.
00:18:05And then it came to the crunch, and I said,
00:18:07I, it's me.
00:18:09He said, what?
00:18:11I said, it's me, Peter Sellers, talking,
00:18:13and it's the only way I could get to you,
00:18:15and would you give me a date on your show?
00:18:17And he said, you cheeky young sod, he said.
00:18:22He said, what do you do?
00:18:24I said, well, I obviously do impersonations.
00:18:27I was 22 at the time.
00:18:29And anyway, I went up there,
00:18:31and I got a date on the spot.
00:18:37At the age of 24,
00:18:39Peter met his first wife, Anne Howe,
00:18:41an aspiring actress.
00:18:43It wasn't long
00:18:45before he whipped out his camera
00:18:47to capture her playful spirit on film.
00:18:49I don't think
00:18:51I was particularly bowled over by him
00:18:53at that time, but
00:18:55I went to see him on stage,
00:18:57and I think that's really
00:18:59when I started to be interested,
00:19:01because on stage, he was
00:19:03absolutely extraordinary,
00:19:05wonderful.
00:19:09Peter and Anne married in 1951,
00:19:11and they would later go on
00:19:13to have two children, Michael and Sarah.
00:19:19Now a rising star, Peter Sellers
00:19:21and a group of pioneering friends
00:19:24would take over the airwaves
00:19:26in a groundbreaking radio series
00:19:28that would change the face of comedy
00:19:30forever.
00:19:32I think up until that point, lots of people still
00:19:34spoke like that on the radio.
00:19:36And then you heard the goons, and you're like,
00:19:38what is this?
00:19:46If I'm ever feeling down,
00:19:48I will put on the Yingtong song.
00:19:51And it's not just the song
00:19:53that makes me laugh, but if you listen in the background,
00:19:55you can hear, I think it's Milligan and Sellers
00:19:57sort of going,
00:19:59and it just cracks me up.
00:20:01The Goon Show featured
00:20:03Spike Milligan, who was also its
00:20:05chief writer, Michael Benteen,
00:20:07Peter Sellers and Harry Seacombe.
00:20:09The group provided a
00:20:11vast array of characters who featured
00:20:13week by week in different surreal
00:20:15melodramas.
00:20:17I think up until that point,
00:20:19you know, a lot of comedy on radio
00:20:21was still very,
00:20:23well, it still had a sort of RP
00:20:25sort of correctness to it.
00:20:27You know, lots of people
00:20:29still spoke like that on the radio.
00:20:31And then you heard the goons,
00:20:33and you're like, what is this?
00:20:35And then you heard the goons,
00:20:37and you're like, what is this?
00:20:39And then you heard the goons,
00:20:41and you're like, what is this?
00:20:43And then you heard the goons,
00:20:46and you're like, what is this?
00:20:48There were all these weird voices,
00:20:50and the script didn't seem to make any sense,
00:20:52and then all the sound effects.
00:20:54Let's have that back, please.
00:20:56One of the most significant things
00:20:58I know to you in your career
00:21:00was the goons.
00:21:02The happiest time in my life,
00:21:04professionally in my life.
00:21:06Yes, I can believe that, too.
00:21:08And of course, I mean, you developed
00:21:10in that time a very special relationship,
00:21:12too, didn't you, with Harry and with Spike?
00:21:15Close friend and fellow goon
00:21:17Spike Milligan related
00:21:19to Peter's rebellious instincts
00:21:21to challenge authority.
00:21:23For anyone who found reality
00:21:25a bug like Peter did,
00:21:27the goon show was sheer therapy.
00:21:29In a sense, every character that he portrays
00:21:31is part of his revenge.
00:21:33He's mocking those who've mocked him,
00:21:35especially those cultural snobs
00:21:37who Peter hated.
00:21:39Their anarchic
00:21:41and surreal comedy broke new ground
00:21:43and had a huge cult following.
00:21:47What they did with the goons,
00:21:49they introduced a sort of
00:21:51wonderful madness,
00:21:53a kind of almost childlike
00:21:55silliness.
00:21:57I introduce you to the goons!
00:21:59APPLAUSE
00:22:01When Brian and I
00:22:03used to go and watch it,
00:22:05you'd very often, they'd have to stop,
00:22:07you know, recording it because
00:22:09they'd all be laughing.
00:22:12They'd invent things,
00:22:14they'd ad-lib things,
00:22:16and nothing was set in stone,
00:22:18so they had great freedom.
00:22:22The goons were very 1950s,
00:22:24it was very post-war.
00:22:26People needed that outlet
00:22:28in crazy, surreal comedy,
00:22:30having been through
00:22:32what they'd been through with the Blitz.
00:22:34And Sellers was just amazing
00:22:36with all these different characters.
00:22:38He'd just stand at the microphone
00:22:40and just turn into them,
00:22:42physically change.
00:22:44Sellers played many voices
00:22:46on the show, making each one
00:22:48instantly recognisable.
00:22:50I am secret agent Blue Butter
00:22:52and my trousers are licensed
00:22:54to thrill!
00:22:56LAUGHTER
00:23:00Strikes mystery pose in army surplus
00:23:02nightshirt covered in egg stains.
00:23:04Waits for applause, not a thud.
00:23:07When you did the recordings
00:23:09of the goons, were they real to you?
00:23:11To all of us, you know,
00:23:13they absolutely lived.
00:23:15There was cowardly
00:23:17Major Dennis Bloodnock,
00:23:19prone to severe gastric disturbances.
00:23:27In a fascinating interview
00:23:29in 1972, Sellers
00:23:31explains the origins of Bloodnock.
00:23:33Bloodnock, you see,
00:23:36came from our days in India.
00:23:38Spike was born in India,
00:23:40and I was in India during the war.
00:23:42So Bloodnock was everything
00:23:44that stood for the British Raj in India.
00:23:46The worst of the British Raj in India.
00:23:48A dreadful man, will stop at nothing,
00:23:50anything, anything at all
00:23:52he will do, for money.
00:23:54It must be for money.
00:23:56It doesn't matter. It's a knock on the door.
00:23:58Don't come in! Just in case.
00:24:00You never know, there might be somebody.
00:24:02My dear, sit over there.
00:24:04Major.
00:24:06Oh, what?
00:24:08I want you to undertake a dangerous mission.
00:24:10Danger? Why me, sir?
00:24:12Why you pick on me? There's 50 other majors on the establishment.
00:24:14Others?
00:24:16Yes, they've been on it all day.
00:24:18The Goons is considered very
00:24:20revolutionary in many ways,
00:24:22but it was coming out of a very strong tradition
00:24:24of radio comedy, and also musical comedy
00:24:26of comedy characters.
00:24:28I've never been so insulted in all my life.
00:24:30Come now, sir, with that face you must have been.
00:24:33You don't get around enough.
00:24:35I think one of the big differences with The Goon Show
00:24:37and why it feels like moving on
00:24:39from the wartime comedies is
00:24:41it's very much post-war.
00:24:43There is a feeling of questioning
00:24:45what went on before.
00:24:47Right, follow me to page 23.
00:24:49The jokes are funnier there.
00:24:51The Goon Show would go on to inspire and influence
00:24:53generations of comics in Britain
00:24:55and abroad.
00:24:57And they really did create
00:24:59a new style which
00:25:02then developed
00:25:04and eventually, I think,
00:25:06was part of
00:25:08what made all the
00:25:10Monty Python group.
00:25:12It made them such a success
00:25:14because it moved on one step further.
00:25:16And I think it all goes
00:25:18back to the Goons changing
00:25:20the type of comedy
00:25:22that we all laughed at.
00:25:24MUSIC
00:25:26Peter often
00:25:28experimented with translating the
00:25:30real humour of the Goons into visual gags
00:25:32on film, as seen here
00:25:34with his friend Spike.
00:25:36And he soon started to set his sights on
00:25:38making inroads into movies.
00:25:40I never really wanted to
00:25:42do much in the theatre.
00:25:44You see, I've been a great film fan all my life.
00:25:46Whenever I go to America, I carry an autograph book around
00:25:48with me. And I never say,
00:25:50it's not for me, it's for my sister, you know.
00:25:52I always say, it's for me, would you sign that?
00:25:54And I wanted to be a movie actor.
00:25:56What actors have influenced
00:25:59you in your acting career, Mr Sellers?
00:26:01Jack Tatty, very much indeed.
00:26:03Richard Attenborough and John Mills.
00:26:05Lowell and Hardy. Lowell and Hardy, of course.
00:26:07My two great favourites.
00:26:09Lowell and Hardy, I think, are the two funniest men
00:26:11I've ever lived from.
00:26:15His love of the slapstick comics
00:26:17of the silent movie era
00:26:19can be seen in an early short film
00:26:21that he directed with Richard Lester.
00:26:23MUSIC
00:26:25It's odd.
00:26:28It was influenced by silent comedy.
00:26:30I mean, you can't really describe a plot
00:26:32because there isn't a plot.
00:26:34But now you look at it and you think,
00:26:36OK, this is sort of an indicator
00:26:38of things to come.
00:26:40This is like a really important 11 minutes
00:26:42of British comedy
00:26:44because you can see that it influenced
00:26:46so many other things.
00:26:48Shot over two Sundays in a field with friends,
00:26:50the running, jumping and standing still film
00:26:52is possibly the most successful
00:26:54home movie ever made.
00:26:56Peter said he'd found this field
00:26:58and he wanted to do some filming in it.
00:27:00And it was just
00:27:02all the goons running around
00:27:04and so on and so forth.
00:27:06Then I got a phone call from him,
00:27:08sort of more or less in the middle of it,
00:27:10and he said,
00:27:12can you come and help? I need a girl.
00:27:14And he said,
00:27:16right, you've just got to be painted.
00:27:18We're going to put numbers
00:27:20on your face.
00:27:22I said, oh, I see.
00:27:25Really what we did was to go out for our own benefit
00:27:27and see how we could experiment with visual humour.
00:27:37Peter Sellers and his actor friend
00:27:39Graham Stark shared similar
00:27:41backgrounds in entertainment
00:27:43and forged a strong lifelong bond.
00:27:47They said they'd been friends for 35 years
00:27:49because they were both in the
00:27:51RAF, you know,
00:27:53the gang show, and that's where they met.
00:27:57He was always surprising. Peter liked surprises.
00:27:59He liked to do the unusual thing.
00:28:01Peter would sort of call up and say,
00:28:03let's go to Paris.
00:28:05And it was always tomorrow.
00:28:07It was never next week or the week after.
00:28:09And then when you got to Paris,
00:28:11that wasn't the end of it.
00:28:13You'd got to do all sorts of exciting things
00:28:15when we got there.
00:28:17So Peter said, we're going to a brothel.
00:28:19And there was a big bed
00:28:22with chairs put against the bed
00:28:24and we sat there.
00:28:26And these two girls
00:28:28took off their tops and their bottoms
00:28:30and so on and appeared naked
00:28:32on this bed and romped about
00:28:34and, well,
00:28:36made sex.
00:28:38Then we left, obviously.
00:28:40As I say, Anne and I were rather stunned.
00:28:44You never knew what he was going to do next.
00:28:48Peter was determined to defy expectations
00:28:51and was now more resolute than ever
00:28:53to pursue a film career.
00:28:57Peter Sellers' enthusiasm for filmmaking
00:28:59was such that he even brought his own camera
00:29:01on set to capture
00:29:03behind-the-scenes moments.
00:29:05He was always very
00:29:07ambitious.
00:29:09He started getting comedy
00:29:11cameos almost, small roles in comedy films.
00:29:17To appear in an Ealing comedy
00:29:19Peter Sellers was nominated for a British comic actor.
00:29:21And in 1955, Peter was cast
00:29:23in a supporting role as a small-time crook
00:29:25in The Lady Killers.
00:29:27Two for her, one against Harry.
00:29:31I just don't think we can depend on a screwy old dame like that.
00:29:35Peter Sellers loved Ali Guinness.
00:29:37Ali Guinness did what Peter Sellers wanted to do
00:29:39which was to play
00:29:41these amazing characters
00:29:43and to play multiple characters sometimes as well.
00:29:45And so to work with your idol.
00:29:48His ideal and his idol.
00:29:50You can imagine him looking at his co-star
00:29:52hero-worshipping his co-star
00:29:54and thinking, one day that's what I'm going to do.
00:30:00In 1959, he starred
00:30:02as the irascible union leader
00:30:04Fred Kite in the Bolting Brothers film
00:30:06I'm Alright Jack
00:30:08a satire on the British trade unions
00:30:10of the day.
00:30:12I'm obliged to point out, Major, that if you sack this man
00:30:14the company is in breach of its agreement with the union.
00:30:17Surely he's not a union member.
00:30:19Correct, but that is merely technical.
00:30:21But didn't you say that he was incompetent
00:30:23and couldn't do his job properly?
00:30:25We do not and cannot accept the principle
00:30:27that incompetence justifies dismissal.
00:30:29That is victimisation.
00:30:31Peter Sellers plays Fred Kite
00:30:33who is a shop steward,
00:30:35a union leader
00:30:37and it's an amazing role for him
00:30:39and it won him leading actor
00:30:41after, so it wasn't just a hit film.
00:30:43Call the drivers out.
00:30:45I tell you brothers, everybody's coming out.
00:30:47It actually gave him some real credibility as well
00:30:49and he became an award winning actor
00:30:51after that movie.
00:30:57Peter was also beginning to demonstrate
00:30:59his on-screen chemistry with glamorous
00:31:01female co-stars.
00:31:03We don't want to go out tonight,
00:31:05do we?
00:31:07I don't if you don't.
00:31:09Do you like the room?
00:31:12Very fair, very fair.
00:31:14My goodness.
00:31:16I haven't seen that for,
00:31:18well, since it was first shown.
00:31:20Oh darling, don't upset yourself.
00:31:22Think of your war wound.
00:31:24In The Wrong Arm of the Law,
00:31:26he starred opposite Nanette Newman
00:31:28as local gang leader, Pearlie Gates.
00:31:30Yeah, what you doing?
00:31:32Nothing darling, just making you more comfortable, that's all.
00:31:36Peter found that scene
00:31:38so funny to do because when
00:31:41I undo the buttons on his shirt
00:31:43and he had a line,
00:31:45he could never get to that line
00:31:47because he giggled.
00:31:49He was the biggest giggler,
00:31:51he giggled at everything
00:31:53and he ruined every take
00:31:55and the director got, understandably,
00:31:57a bit knocked with this
00:31:59and said go and have a coffee,
00:32:01come back and we'll go through it
00:32:03and we went through it,
00:32:05we got to the same place Peter went again.
00:32:07He was the worst person
00:32:09giggling on the set.
00:32:11There are lots of bits
00:32:13in that film which Peter
00:32:15really just ad-libbed
00:32:17and added and on the spur
00:32:19of the moment.
00:32:21So if you were acting with him,
00:32:23you did have to expect
00:32:25the unexpected.
00:32:27Let me have a think.
00:32:31Yeah, hang on, I'm thinking.
00:32:33Because that was very
00:32:35early on in Peter's
00:32:38career. It was a small
00:32:40British picture
00:32:42and it was
00:32:44really the first time
00:32:46I'd ever met Peter.
00:32:48Obviously thrilled to be working with him
00:32:50and it was really
00:32:52the beginning of a great friendship
00:32:54with Brian and Peter and I
00:32:56that lasted for many,
00:32:58many years.
00:33:00For Sellers,
00:33:02the boundaries between fiction and real life
00:33:04often seemed to become blurred.
00:33:07His on-screen love interests
00:33:09regularly became the objects
00:33:11of his affection and obsessions
00:33:13off-screen too.
00:33:15He would always
00:33:17say things like
00:33:19why don't you marry me?
00:33:21I'm happily married.
00:33:23He always thought
00:33:25other people's happiness,
00:33:27if he could have it,
00:33:29he would be happy.
00:33:31Well, that will be all
00:33:33for now, my dear.
00:33:37He asked me
00:33:39if I'd like to sleep with him
00:33:41and I said I didn't think Graham would
00:33:43understand.
00:33:45There's no
00:33:47more said about it.
00:33:49No fuss.
00:33:55Peter's obsessions
00:33:57with his leading ladies would reach
00:33:59new heights in his next film.
00:34:01In The Millionaires,
00:34:03Sellers was paired with an
00:34:05original screen siren, Sophia Loren.
00:34:07Although not conventionally
00:34:09good-looking,
00:34:11he continued to get carried away
00:34:13with the fantasy of his own charms.
00:34:17There's something funny,
00:34:19and we see this a lot in Sellers' career,
00:34:21about him being seduced by women.
00:34:25I don't think it's any coincidence
00:34:27that in a lot of his films
00:34:29there are very glamorous, beautiful women
00:34:31who are really out of his league
00:34:34but who kind of seduce him
00:34:36and we get jokes and fun from that.
00:34:38Are you married?
00:34:40He was filming with Sophia Loren
00:34:42so then I would drive over
00:34:44and join them
00:34:46and Sophia Loren was sitting there.
00:34:50Peter was absolutely besotted with her
00:34:52and she was lovely.
00:34:54She was so nice.
00:34:58Peter's own home movie footage
00:35:00reveals just how infatuated
00:35:02he was with Sophia.
00:35:04Well, unfortunately,
00:35:06Peter got totally carried away with this
00:35:08and thought that she was madly in love with him
00:35:10and of course fell madly in love with her
00:35:12which was, needless to say,
00:35:14very difficult to live with.
00:35:18I enjoyed working with Sophia
00:35:20because it was the first time
00:35:22I was in a major film
00:35:24and I was really shit scared.
00:35:26I didn't know what to do with myself every day.
00:35:28Good morning, good afternoon, Miss Loren.
00:35:31How are the jewels and all that?
00:35:33She was fun because, you know,
00:35:35you could crack gags and all that sort of thing.
00:35:37Peter walked in
00:35:39and he said to Anne,
00:35:41Well, I've got to tell you this
00:35:43but I've fallen in love with Sophia Loren
00:35:45and she loves me.
00:35:47There was a silence
00:35:49and so then Anne packed a suitcase,
00:35:51walked out and moved in with us.
00:35:53I'm not surprised that he was a bit smitten
00:35:55with Sophia Loren
00:35:57but that was typical of Peter.
00:36:01He never wanted to split up.
00:36:03He didn't want to divorce, he didn't want me to leave.
00:36:05He just wanted to be able to
00:36:07do what he liked, wherever he liked
00:36:09and come back and tell Mama
00:36:11what was going on
00:36:13and I was supposed to be
00:36:15sympathetic to him.
00:36:17Well, it didn't actually work
00:36:19so eventually
00:36:21I guess I left.
00:36:25By the time Peter Sellers'
00:36:27marriage to Anne was over
00:36:30he was already becoming a Hollywood star
00:36:32in the Pink Panther movies
00:36:34but his kudos as an actor would be elevated
00:36:36even further in his next project
00:36:38that would be his most sensational
00:36:40and critically acclaimed yet.
00:36:42It was so out there.
00:36:44It was so on the edge.
00:36:46It was kind of brave, really.
00:36:50Having now established himself
00:36:52as a major film star
00:36:54one of the world's most revered directors
00:36:56soon came knocking on Peter Sellers' door.
00:37:00Dr. Strangelove
00:37:02is a dark satire on the nuclear arms race.
00:37:06Directed by Stanley Kubrick
00:37:08it features Sellers as three different characters.
00:37:12Dr. Strangelove is a dream
00:37:14role to be offered Peter Sellers
00:37:16by Stanley Kubrick
00:37:18who we think of as quite a serious
00:37:20director. The idea he's
00:37:22going to make this quite a bit hard-hitting
00:37:24black satire about
00:37:26the nuclear age
00:37:28Nuclear reactors could provide power
00:37:30almost indefinitely.
00:37:32And to cast an English
00:37:34comedian or comic actor
00:37:36in three big roles
00:37:38in the film.
00:37:41Here he is as a high-ranking officer
00:37:43a role he'd perfected
00:37:45in his gang show days.
00:37:47What kind of suit you call that, fella?
00:37:49What do you mean, suit?
00:37:51This happens to be an RAF uniform, sir.
00:37:53And I am group captain
00:37:55Lionel Mandrake.
00:37:58Strangelove is, well, it's sort of the doomsday
00:38:00scenario, but by accident
00:38:02it's actually about an American
00:38:04military guy who
00:38:06is paranoid, so he takes it
00:38:08upon himself to
00:38:10instigate a nuclear
00:38:12attack on Russia.
00:38:14Well, I'll tell you what he did.
00:38:16He ordered his planes
00:38:18to attack
00:38:20your country.
00:38:22Well, let me finish, Dimitri.
00:38:24Let me finish,
00:38:27Dimitri. Well, listen, how do you think
00:38:29I feel about it?
00:38:31So it's horrifying, really. It's a chilling
00:38:33scenario, and certainly one, I mean, it's
00:38:35relevant today, but it was relevant in the 60s
00:38:37as well. It's very male
00:38:39heavy. I think there's only one female character.
00:38:41They all seem like little boys
00:38:43playing a game.
00:38:45I am as sorry as you are, Dimitri. Don't say
00:38:47that you're more sorry than I am, because
00:38:49I'm capable of being just as sorry as you
00:38:51are. Ultimately, to me, it seems
00:38:53like a film about masculinity, about
00:38:55guys who control
00:38:57everything around us, but
00:38:59also have egos, and those egos
00:39:01sometimes can cause
00:39:03chaos. Of course, it would be
00:39:05absolutely vital that our top
00:39:07government and military men be
00:39:09included. Seller's
00:39:11chillingly compelling performance as
00:39:13Dr. Strangelove has become one of
00:39:15the most memorable in movie history.
00:39:17As ever, he found a unique
00:39:19way to breathe life into the character.
00:39:21We had an idea
00:39:24about how Dr. Strangelove himself should appear
00:39:26and Stanley said, what about
00:39:28the idea that his hand had been injured
00:39:30in some terrible nuclear fallout experiment?
00:39:32So, then we put
00:39:34this black glove on and then suddenly
00:39:36from the black glove, we got the idea that half
00:39:38of him was Nazi and half was
00:39:40American, you see, and suddenly this hand
00:39:42started to go up. Well, this came
00:39:44out of just talking and throwing ideas
00:39:46at each other.
00:39:48It was so great to be able to laugh at that.
00:39:50It was so out there.
00:39:53It was so on the edge. Yes, it was satire
00:39:55but it was edgy and it was funny
00:39:57and, you know, to be able to laugh
00:39:59at the Nazi salute,
00:40:01it was
00:40:03kind of brave, really.
00:40:07Here, Dr. Strangelove
00:40:09introduces his dystopian vision
00:40:11for the future of mankind.
00:40:13Actually,
00:40:15they would be prodigiously, eh?
00:40:17There would be much time
00:40:19and little to do.
00:40:21But with the proper breeding techniques
00:40:23and the ratio of,
00:40:25say, ten females
00:40:27to each male,
00:40:29I would guess that they could then work their way
00:40:31back to the present gross national
00:40:33product within, say, twenty years.
00:40:37His mechanical arm that just keeps trying
00:40:39to kill him is beautiful comic
00:40:41genius. It really is.
00:40:43And even with a character like Strangelove
00:40:45which is, you know, quite dark,
00:40:47he's an ex-Nazi
00:40:50scientific advisor. It's a fairly dark
00:40:52character.
00:40:54The clowning involved in that,
00:40:56the humour that he finds in that
00:40:58really dark character
00:41:00is just
00:41:02fantastic.
00:41:06By 1964,
00:41:08Peter Sellers had become an undisputed
00:41:10international star.
00:41:12With Dr. Strangelove earning him his
00:41:14first Oscar nomination and
00:41:16The Pink Panther being a runaway success,
00:41:18he had the world at his feet.
00:41:22His home movie footage now
00:41:24reveals a coquettish young
00:41:26Britt Eklund entering the scene.
00:41:30Mr. Sellers, this has been a pretty
00:41:32whirlwind romance, hasn't it, to say the least.
00:41:34Can you tell us a story of how you met Miss Eklund?
00:41:36I was staying at the Dorchester
00:41:38and I looked in the paper and saw
00:41:40Britt's picture that she had just
00:41:42arrived in England.
00:41:44And I thought what I saw was very good.
00:41:47And so a friend of mine said, how strange,
00:41:49she happens to be staying at this hotel. I said, where?
00:41:51So he said, just down the corridor.
00:41:53So down I go. I said,
00:41:55would you like to have a drink?
00:41:57And she said, yes, I'd love to have a drink.
00:41:59And before I knew it, when she went away,
00:42:01I missed her terribly and
00:42:03I thought, well, this is it.
00:42:05Britt describes the overwhelming reaction
00:42:07from the press and the public
00:42:09to her romance with Peter.
00:42:11Everything went crazy.
00:42:13You know, the English people
00:42:16really immediately took to this
00:42:18fairy tale story
00:42:20of their most favourite
00:42:22actor and this little
00:42:24cream puff from Sweden.
00:42:28The ultimate celebrity couple
00:42:30of the day, Peter's marriage
00:42:32to 21-year-old Britt three weeks
00:42:34later caused a media frenzy.
00:42:36Peter Sellers
00:42:38looking as usual a vain devoner
00:42:40herself. And showbiz bride
00:42:42of the year, Britt Eklund, the Swedish
00:42:44girl whose lightning romance has been the talk
00:42:46of the town. They met only a few
00:42:48weeks ago. Finally, everything
00:42:50seemed to have fallen into place for Peter
00:42:52Sellers. He felt loved
00:42:54and his friends had never seen him happier.
00:42:58The person I thought was so
00:43:00wonderful for him
00:43:02was Britt, Britt Eklund,
00:43:04who was the most enchanting
00:43:06sweet person. They had a daughter
00:43:08together and everybody
00:43:10thought this is his great moment
00:43:12of happiness.
00:43:14Peter and Britt's post-wedding euphoria
00:43:16is captured here on camera.
00:43:18Now darling, this is
00:43:20being recorded, everything we're saying now.
00:43:22I love you. You hear that, folks?
00:43:24I love you! She said she
00:43:26loved me.
00:43:28On
00:43:30pre-striped film she loves me.
00:43:32She loves me, yeah, yeah,
00:43:34yeah. She loves me, yeah, yeah,
00:43:36yeah. When does this tweet start, love?
00:43:38Let's have some music on now, folks. Thank you.
00:43:40I'll put some music on.
00:43:44From
00:43:46humble beginnings sweeping the stages
00:43:48of music halls, Sellers
00:43:50could now count members of the royal family
00:43:52as close friends.
00:43:54Peter
00:43:56invited us, Graham
00:43:58and I, just to go for dinner.
00:44:00He said he'd have a couple of friends there.
00:44:02So we went there and
00:44:04when we'd been
00:44:06there about 10 or 15 minutes,
00:44:08Princess Margaret
00:44:10arrived with her husband.
00:44:12Princess
00:44:14Margaret was even game enough to appear
00:44:16with Peter in this short comic sketch.
00:44:18May I present,
00:44:20ladies and gentlemen, my impersonation
00:44:22in 11 seconds flat
00:44:24before your very eyes of Her Royal
00:44:26Highness Princess Margaret!
00:44:28I mean, he knew her quite
00:44:30well. She was a very
00:44:32sort of actressy.
00:44:34And, you know, she probably would have been
00:44:36quite good, I think.
00:44:38But they did a scene together
00:44:40and she absolutely
00:44:42loved it. Then she was really thrilled
00:44:44because Graham told her, you know,
00:44:46he said, I think you're really good.
00:44:48This
00:44:50rare, intimate footage reveals
00:44:52a strong friendship.
00:44:54He was friends with the royal family.
00:44:56He would stay with them
00:44:58for the weekend. The king,
00:45:00Prince Charles at the time, he was a big
00:45:02Goon fan.
00:45:04He'd do all the voices, you know,
00:45:06Eccles and Bluebottle and all that kind of thing.
00:45:08The king was very much
00:45:10in love with all that Goonery,
00:45:12all that silliness, really.
00:45:16Meanwhile, the newlyweds were
00:45:18enjoying their star status in Hollywood.
00:45:20But, as Britt candidly
00:45:22recounts, their fairy tale was about
00:45:24to have a dark twist.
00:45:26In LA, of course, there was
00:45:28lovemaking involved
00:45:30and he used these amyl nitrate
00:45:32pills and then we were going to drink
00:45:34champagne and he spilled it
00:45:36on the bed and then suddenly
00:45:38he just went,
00:45:40and put his arm out and he said,
00:45:42I know what this is.
00:45:44I believe he had eight
00:45:46heart attacks.
00:45:48When he came
00:45:50into the hospital as an emergency
00:45:52in the ICU,
00:45:54it was not believed that he would survive.
00:45:56Peter Sellers was
00:45:58only 38 when he suffered 13
00:46:00heart attacks in the space of a few
00:46:02days. His heart stopped
00:46:04for one and a half minutes and he almost
00:46:06died. He would be plagued
00:46:08by heart trouble for the rest of his life.
00:46:10But I do remember
00:46:12one thing clearly, a
00:46:14feeling, I wouldn't expire,
00:46:16I wouldn't actually die.
00:46:18Now imagine an arm,
00:46:20and you hold this arm, you can feel it saying,
00:46:22I won't let you go, I won't let you
00:46:24go. And I held
00:46:26onto this arm and I knew as long as I
00:46:28had that arm that I wouldn't
00:46:30die. After
00:46:32his heart attack, Peter's already
00:46:34superstitious nature went into
00:46:36overdrive. He got very
00:46:38interested, well, obsessed
00:46:40with spirit mediums
00:46:42and the paranormal
00:46:44and soothsayers.
00:46:46He took all that very seriously.
00:46:48Horoscopes,
00:46:50magic crystals,
00:46:52he'd have to
00:46:54move the furniture
00:46:56around in bedrooms
00:46:58so that his head would be
00:47:00pointing polar north.
00:47:02Very superstitious.
00:47:04Having
00:47:06had that heart attack in California,
00:47:08obviously it was very difficult
00:47:10to get work thereafter because
00:47:12how could you insure him?
00:47:14So he eased
00:47:16himself back into
00:47:18work by going on
00:47:20not only, but also,
00:47:22with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore,
00:47:24who were mad
00:47:26goon show fans.
00:47:28Good evening. Here in the studio
00:47:30tonight we have Mr. Danny Goff,
00:47:32the boxer who has turned portrait painter
00:47:34and he's having his first show in London
00:47:36this week. Mr. Goff.
00:47:38Mr. Goff.
00:47:40Peter Sellers was by now a global superstar
00:47:42with huge box office appeal.
00:47:44But he was also becoming difficult
00:47:46on set and would soon gain a reputation
00:47:48for being impossible to work with.
00:47:50I'm often
00:47:52up as being nasty on the set.
00:47:54I'm not nasty on the set at all.
00:47:56It's just that the end product
00:47:58is all that matters. The end
00:48:00product.
00:48:04Throughout the following
00:48:06decade, Peter Sellers' name
00:48:08and face were synonymous with the
00:48:10swinging sixties. And some
00:48:12of his ill-advised movie choices
00:48:14reflected the hedonistic and
00:48:16psychedelic excesses of the era.
00:48:18Really quite soon
00:48:20after the success of Doctor
00:48:22Strangelove and the Pink Panther movies, his career
00:48:24really plummeted. He'd gone from Oscar
00:48:26nominee to someone who
00:48:28had really suffered quite a lot of flop films
00:48:30and just seemed quite
00:48:32troubled. By now
00:48:34his difficult reputation was
00:48:36becoming well known in the industry.
00:48:38I mean, I have a name of being very difficult.
00:48:40I'm not difficult at all. I just cannot
00:48:42take mediocrity. I'm often written
00:48:44up as being,
00:48:46you know, nasty
00:48:48on the set. I'm not nasty on the set
00:48:50at all. It's just that when you
00:48:52try to argue a point with somebody,
00:48:54the end product is all
00:48:56that matters. The end product.
00:48:58For Sellers,
00:49:00the ultimate aim was perfection.
00:49:02After his heart attack,
00:49:04he'd thrown himself into a cameo role
00:49:06as sex-obsessed German psychologist
00:49:08Dr. Fritz Fassbender
00:49:10in Woody Allen's debut
00:49:12screwball comedy, What's New Pussycat?
00:49:14In one scene,
00:49:16Dr. Fritz offers some unorthodox
00:49:18advice to notorious womanizer
00:49:20Michael James, played by
00:49:22Peter O'Toole.
00:49:46See you at the next meeting. Bring with you 500 francs.
00:49:54Hello, my little exotist.
00:49:56This is baby Fritzy here.
00:49:58He must be a genius.
00:50:02In 1967,
00:50:04Sellers signed up to star in
00:50:06Casino Royale, a James Bond
00:50:08spoof whose escalating budget
00:50:10had become a notorious example
00:50:12of Hollywood extravagance.
00:50:16Bond. James Bond.
00:50:18I was offered a million dollars
00:50:20to play James Bond. I said,
00:50:22you must be out of your bloody mind because
00:50:24what about Sean Connery, Harry Saltzman
00:50:26and all that sort of thing? And the producer said,
00:50:28I have this book and I'm gonna make it.
00:50:30And I said, I certainly can't
00:50:32play James Bond. Not my scene at all.
00:50:34Bond? James Bond?
00:50:36Your name is familiar.
00:50:38I don't believe
00:50:40I've had the pleasure.
00:50:42He has a big scene with Le Chiffre,
00:50:44played by Orson Welles, and they hated each other.
00:50:48Goodbye, Monsieur Le Chiffre. It was nice knowing you.
00:50:50And Sellers was clearly
00:50:52going through a tough time
00:50:54when he was making it and would disappear,
00:50:56would argue
00:50:58with the filmmakers
00:51:00about who his James Bond
00:51:02should be. I think he wanted him to be
00:51:04more suave and serious rather than
00:51:06thinking, it's Peter Sellers, we want jokes.
00:51:08Sellers clowning
00:51:10in this behind-the-scenes footage
00:51:12is perhaps closer to what the producers
00:51:14were hoping to see in his performance.
00:51:16I've always been
00:51:18aware of the power of money
00:51:20and the way they wave it in front of you
00:51:22to get you to do things.
00:51:24In fact, you can buy anyone
00:51:26in the film industry, and I mean
00:51:28anyone, including myself.
00:51:34Power, greed and class snobbery
00:51:36are also at the heart of another film
00:51:38directed by Joe McGrath.
00:51:42And then Sellers made
00:51:44Magic Christian
00:51:46with Ringo, and again
00:51:48a rather dark satire on
00:51:50money and greed.
00:51:52And Sellers found that very
00:51:54congenial because it was a way of
00:51:56being quite nasty
00:51:58about rich people
00:52:00and how poor people
00:52:02will do anything to equatiate themselves.
00:52:04Sellers plays
00:52:06eccentric billionaire Sir Guy Grand,
00:52:08and in this scene he comes up with
00:52:10an outlandish idea to bribe a traffic
00:52:12warden, played by his old friend Spike.
00:52:36Despite his success,
00:52:38Peter became increasingly
00:52:40disillusioned and unhappy in his
00:52:42personal life.
00:52:44Peter loved laughing, loved
00:52:46thinking of funny ideas,
00:52:48but it's sad that he
00:52:50never discovered the
00:52:52bluebird of happiness for himself.
00:52:54He was not as happy
00:52:56as one hoped he could be
00:52:58in his private life.
00:53:04I like to be happy,
00:53:06yes, I like to be happy very much.
00:53:08You could say,
00:53:10right, successful
00:53:12millionaire,
00:53:14three beautiful children,
00:53:16my health, all these
00:53:18material things around me, why aren't
00:53:20you happy?
00:53:22Everybody gets their
00:53:24ups and downs, and I suppose
00:53:26in somebody like Peter,
00:53:28it's sort of bigger than it might be
00:53:30with other people. He could be
00:53:32very up, and he could be very down.
00:53:36Seemingly never fully
00:53:38satisfied, his marriage to Britt
00:53:40ended in 1968.
00:53:42I feel
00:53:44extremely vulnerable, and
00:53:46that I need help, a lot.
00:53:48I feel mainly that
00:53:50I need the help of a woman.
00:53:52I'm continually searching for this woman.
00:53:54I keep reading of
00:53:56these great women behind,
00:53:58men who support them and push
00:54:00them forward, and
00:54:02look, and my
00:54:04they're you.
00:54:06They're great
00:54:08in bed. They're
00:54:10like a sister. They're not there
00:54:12when you don't want to see them. They are there when you want to see them.
00:54:14I don't know where they are.
00:54:16I'll find one one of these days.
00:54:22In 1970, Sellers married
00:54:24for the third time to socialite
00:54:26Miranda Quarry, but this
00:54:28union would not last long either.
00:54:30Embarking on a string
00:54:32of high-profile romances, including
00:54:34with Liza Minnelli, Sellers'
00:54:36personal life became one of the
00:54:38first celebrity soap operas
00:54:40to play out in the British media,
00:54:42and provided endless column
00:54:44inches for the tabloids.
00:54:46You've had a fairly sort of turbulent
00:54:48private life, haven't you, throughout your career?
00:54:50As you know, I've been married three
00:54:52times, and
00:54:54on three
00:54:56occasions it really didn't work,
00:54:58but I think that
00:55:00somewhere there's somebody for everybody.
00:55:02Peter's father had died
00:55:04in 1962, and
00:55:06in 1967, his mother
00:55:08died of a heart attack.
00:55:10His extraordinarily close bond
00:55:12with Peg is all too clear
00:55:14in his home movies.
00:55:16I felt a great feeling of loneliness.
00:55:18I just couldn't
00:55:20pick up the phone and speak to my mother anymore.
00:55:22He obviously was
00:55:24devastated when she died,
00:55:26and he took my hand and
00:55:28he said,
00:55:30do you think I'll see her again?
00:55:32Do you think that she's around?
00:55:34Do you think she knows?
00:55:36I just said what anyone would say,
00:55:38well, of course she knows, of course she does.
00:55:40He was always trying to get in touch with her
00:55:42through seances and spirit
00:55:44mediums. He'd say,
00:55:46my mother appeared to me in a dream and said
00:55:48I mustn't work today,
00:55:50all this kind of thing.
00:55:52Despite his heartache,
00:55:54Peter Sellers' career continued,
00:55:56and he was always in demand
00:55:58as a guest on comedy sketch shows.
00:56:00In America, he was a
00:56:02firm favourite with the king of
00:56:04cool, Dean Martin.
00:56:06In one side-splitting sketch,
00:56:08Dean plays a patient visiting
00:56:10his Irish doctor, played by Peter.
00:56:14Excuse me, are you a doctor?
00:56:16No, sir, no, no. No, I'm a
00:56:18specialist.
00:56:20What do you specialise in?
00:56:22I specialise in sick people, sir.
00:56:24Oh, well, you're just
00:56:26the man I'm looking for. I haven't been feeding myself.
00:56:28Oh, who have you been feeding?
00:56:38Now mostly guesting on TV
00:56:40shows, his film star status
00:56:42had waned, but Peter Sellers'
00:56:44fortunes were soon to change again
00:56:46with the return of his
00:56:48most famous role.
00:56:50I remember Peter saying,
00:56:52well, how did you learn to whip then?
00:57:00By the early 1970s,
00:57:02Peter Sellers had been through several years
00:57:04in the wilderness, but finally
00:57:06his luck changed in 1974
00:57:08with the return of
00:57:10Chief Inspector Clouseau.
00:57:12Sellers played Clouseau twice
00:57:14in the 60s, then there was a gap,
00:57:16and he didn't come back as Clouseau until
00:57:18the mid-70s. Of course,
00:57:20when that happened, it was huge. I think it was the biggest one
00:57:22at that point, and they then went on to do more.
00:57:24Bond girl
00:57:26Valerie Leon had worked alongside
00:57:28many of the entertainment world's biggest
00:57:30stars, but nothing quite prepared
00:57:32her for her next role.
00:57:34Allow me to introduce Tanya,
00:57:36the lotus eater.
00:57:38What else
00:57:40does she do?
00:57:44I remember Peter
00:57:46saying, well, how did
00:57:48you learn to whip then?
00:57:50The film
00:57:52company sent this wonderful
00:57:54man called Alex
00:57:56Laredo. I remember his name to this day.
00:57:58He was a whip expert,
00:58:00and he came to my house, and I'm telling all this to Peter,
00:58:02with a selection of
00:58:04whips, you know, which
00:58:06we took into the garden
00:58:08so that I could learn how to hold it
00:58:10and how to practice and all the rest of it.
00:58:12And
00:58:14I said to Peter,
00:58:16I was getting on and really quite enjoying
00:58:18what I was doing, and I looked up
00:58:20and all the neighbours were peering out of the
00:58:22windows, wondering what on earth I was getting
00:58:24up to in my suburban
00:58:26garden.
00:58:28Peter Sellers' comeback as Clouseau
00:58:30was so committed, as demonstrated
00:58:32in this scene, that even with
00:58:34increasingly poor health, he was
00:58:36determined not to be derailed.
00:58:38He did want to
00:58:40take life a little easier than he'd been
00:58:42taking it, but somehow
00:58:44he didn't seem to achieve
00:58:46what he should have achieved in that direction.
00:58:52In 1976, Peter was
00:58:54introduced to 22-year-old actress
00:58:56Lynn Frederick. Yet again,
00:58:58he captured his new love on camera.
00:59:00He proposed
00:59:02two days after their initial meeting,
00:59:04and they married the following year.
00:59:06Out of all the
00:59:08interviews Sellers gave, perhaps
00:59:10the most surprising and revealing
00:59:12was with Kermit the Frog,
00:59:14in a 1978 guest appearance
00:59:16on The Muppet Show.
00:59:18I just love all your wild characters,
00:59:20Peter, but backstage here, you can
00:59:22just relax and be yourself.
00:59:24But that, you see, my dear
00:59:26Kermit, would be altogether impossible.
00:59:28I could never be myself.
00:59:30Never yourself? No.
00:59:32You see,
00:59:34there is no me. I do not exist.
00:59:36He was such
00:59:38a mass of characterisations
00:59:40that you often
00:59:42didn't know who Peter Sellers was.
00:59:44He's always doing an accent
00:59:46or a character
00:59:48or a different
00:59:50person. You didn't know who he was
00:59:52going to be next.
00:59:54In 1979,
00:59:56Sellers took on the most treasured
00:59:58role of his career in the film
01:00:00Being There.
01:00:02It was a part he felt he was destined
01:00:04to play. Being There was based
01:00:06on a book by Jerzy Kaczynski,
01:00:08and Peter Sellers had read that book and loved that book.
01:00:10In an insightful interview,
01:00:12Kaczynski explains why
01:00:14Sellers chose the role.
01:00:16Chauncey Gardner in Being There
01:00:18is an ultimate Peter Sellers. He saw himself
01:00:20as a man without identity,
01:00:22without background, in fact.
01:00:24All Sellers' films
01:00:26are about such incomplete characters,
01:00:28and he's excellent in portraying them
01:00:30and how we accept them for something else.
01:00:32Being There
01:00:34tells the story of Chauncey,
01:00:36a childlike gardener,
01:00:38who, through a stroke of fate, is mistaken
01:00:40for an economic guru.
01:00:42Here, he
01:00:44meets and soon becomes a trusted ally
01:00:46of the US President.
01:00:58Chauncey's only personality
01:01:00comes from copying people
01:01:02he sees on TV, as
01:01:04Sellers explains in this illuminating
01:01:06interview in 1979.
01:01:08If you play him like
01:01:10a person who's watched TV
01:01:12and maybe copied the TV
01:01:14voices, then he wouldn't be
01:01:16credible to the people he was later to meet,
01:01:18you see, because they think he was
01:01:20a crank. So
01:01:22he's got to have something going,
01:01:24and
01:01:26perhaps gardening, of which he knows
01:01:28a lot, would be
01:01:30easily misunderstood
01:01:32for intellectualisms.
01:01:34As long as the roots
01:01:36are not severed,
01:01:38all is well,
01:01:40and all will be well
01:01:42in the garden.
01:01:44As ever,
01:01:46Peter Sellers drew inspiration
01:01:48for the role from a great comedic hero
01:01:50of the past.
01:01:52When he was in California first,
01:01:54he went to visit
01:01:56the elderly Stan Laurel
01:01:58in his retirement apartment,
01:02:00and then years later,
01:02:02when he made Being There, he draws
01:02:04upon that idea of the
01:02:06lonely old comic
01:02:08living in reduced circumstances,
01:02:10wearing
01:02:12clothes and suits from an era
01:02:14that's gone.
01:02:16With its symbolic ending
01:02:18that sees Chauncey walk on water,
01:02:20Being There was the
01:02:22defining moment of Sellers' career,
01:02:24and it earned him his second
01:02:26Oscar nomination.
01:02:30Peter said,
01:02:32I would like to move into
01:02:34more serious roles,
01:02:36and that was a step in the right direction.
01:02:38It was very moving.
01:02:40It's very difficult to be
01:02:42accepted as a straight actor,
01:02:44or more dramatic
01:02:46actor, shall we say,
01:02:48because all actors are basically serious actors,
01:02:50otherwise we wouldn't be working in it.
01:02:52And I never thought of myself
01:02:54really as anything other than
01:02:56a comic actor.
01:03:00MUSIC
01:03:04Sellers
01:03:06had made plans to go to Los Angeles
01:03:08for open-heart surgery,
01:03:10but first he decided to go to London
01:03:12for a reunion with his
01:03:14old Goon Show friends.
01:03:16I hadn't seen him for a while,
01:03:18and he phoned,
01:03:20and I answered the phone,
01:03:22and he didn't do any of his
01:03:24funny voices or any of that,
01:03:26he just said,
01:03:28George, can I talk to Grey?
01:03:30And I called
01:03:32Graham, and we were already worried,
01:03:34he'd been very silent,
01:03:36and Peter, I think he was in a hotel,
01:03:38anyway,
01:03:40he said,
01:03:42come and see me.
01:03:44And so
01:03:46I did, and then
01:03:48he,
01:03:50well,
01:03:52Spike rang,
01:03:54said he was very worried about
01:03:56Peter,
01:03:58and he didn't
01:04:00know how long he'd got.
01:04:02MUSIC
01:04:08And that was it,
01:04:10and he died.
01:04:12On the 24th
01:04:14of July 1980,
01:04:16at the age of 54,
01:04:18Peter Sellers collapsed and died
01:04:20from another heart attack.
01:04:22His death was front-page news
01:04:24in every British newspaper at the time.
01:04:26It was an indication
01:04:28of what a huge star he had become.
01:04:30I suppose we're still
01:04:32fascinated by Peter Sellers because
01:04:34of the variety of characters
01:04:36that he played, the voices,
01:04:38the personalities.
01:04:40To go from
01:04:42music hall, radio, stage,
01:04:44to Hollywood actor,
01:04:46there's not many
01:04:48people that get to do that.
01:04:50He wasn't
01:04:52a comic actor. He was a great
01:04:54actor. He was as great as
01:04:56Laurence Olivier or Chaplin
01:04:58because the transformations
01:05:00were also going on
01:05:02in the inside.
01:05:04Whether it was doing his iconically
01:05:06bad French accent,
01:05:08Do you have a ring?
01:05:10A ring?
01:05:12endless physical mishaps,
01:05:14or comedic
01:05:16fight scenes with Cato,
01:05:18Peter Sellers
01:05:20made millions
01:05:22laugh the world over
01:05:24in the part that made him a star.
01:05:26One role in a stellar
01:05:28body of work. Peter Sellers was
01:05:30a genius. We rarely see people
01:05:32like him. I can still watch
01:05:34all these films now and still laugh
01:05:36even though it's like
01:05:3850 years later.
01:05:40It's a
01:05:42legacy that will always be
01:05:44something of fascination.
01:05:46What an extraordinary
01:05:48character he was.
01:05:50What dear?
01:05:52Oh.
01:05:54Well, we have to finish this
01:05:56interview I'm afraid.
01:05:58Is there anything you would like to say just to round the whole thing off?
01:06:00I'd just like to say
01:06:04You're a very beautiful
01:06:06wonderful boy Brian.
01:06:12It was a moment
01:06:14The House of Windsor got it all shades
01:06:16of wrong. It's a royal knockout
01:06:18The Untold Story is brand new
01:06:20Saturday at 8.35 and straight afterwards
01:06:22we step back in time at 9.35
01:06:24to record the telly that was
01:06:26totally 1976.
01:06:28Also brand new. Next A&E
01:06:30After Dark.