All language subtitles for Peter.Sellers.A.State.of.Comic.Ecstasy.2020

This is the garden that my dad
grew up in.

His father was Peter Sellers.

I never knew my grandad.

He died quite a few years
before I was born.

But what I do remember
is this garden.

I remember watching home movies
when I was a kid of him playing

with my dad when he was a baby
and the gardener who worked there

at the time.

Michael! Michael!

And there he is running over
to his dad now.

See that?

He's a lovely little fella.

I'm not sure that my grandad
was the easiest person to live with.

People are very intrigued
by Peter Sellers and we know

nothing about him.

He had no own personality.

There was no Peter Sellers
as a human being.

I'm a very ambitious person.

I don't believe by any means
that I've even begun to do

what's inside me.

I have a burning sort of fire
inside me to do certain things

which I know I'm going to do.

He was capable of being mad
and funny and wonderful,

and then the next minute
he could be plunged

into despair.

Another...

Everyone loved him
when he was acting

Peter Sellers,

and that was really his purpose
in life.

My family don't have a lot
of my grandad's possessions.

Maybe some photos
or an old film script.

There's something we do know
about, and that's his extensive

collection of home movies.

He was obsessed with cameras.

He filmed pretty much everything -

all the big moments in his life.

He did tend to film a lot
of the intense relationships

he had with women -

which not all of
ended all that well.

Darling, lay back, as I'm
going to come over you like this.

Fantastic.

He was always moving on, trying
new things, trying new people,

new affairs, new marriages, trying
to find the secret of happiness.

I mean, I have a name of being very
difficult. I'm not difficult at all.

I just cannot take mediocrity.

I just cannot take it on any level.

He was a genius, he was able to do
that thing of making something funny

but not caricatured - that sort
of explosion of talent.

Mein Fuhrer!

I can walk!

May I welcome you to The Goon Show
and introduce you to the Goons!

I think it was 1955 when I finally
got hooked on the Goon Shows.

Next, we present The Dreaded Revenge
Of Fred Fu Manchu, Part Four.

It was Peter Sellers,

Harry Secombe, Michael Bentine
and Spike Milligan,

and I must say, the first one
I heard, I thought,

"I just can't
make sense of this at all,"

then I realised that was
the point of it.

I intend to destroy it

with my explodable finger.
Over my dead body!

That's that settled.

The Goon Show - how big was it?

Oh, it was as big as that,

or even bigger. Of course it
was before television,

so everybody that you knew who was
of the same ilk and of reasonable

intelligence met and, you know,
listened to it together.

You don't have its equivalent

even today.

They made a virtue
of being on radio.

And of course, Sellers was
the sort of standout performer

in terms of his versatility

and the fact that he could do all
these voices and transform himself.

Eccles, if I don't get $4,000
within the hour

I'm going to get killed!

What's the time now?

Two o'clock. Oh, don't worry, boss,
I'll ring Dick.

Hello, Dick? Can you fix
a tune for three o'clock?

They would say the unsayable,
really. They were probably nearer

to the sort of Dadaists

or Beckett. Part of the joy of
The Goon Show was that these guys

were round the microphone
and you could tell

they were having such a good time.

One of the most significant things
I know to you in your career,

and that was the Goons -
which I know that...

..I mean, wasn't just a passing

phase in your career -

it's something that you still
very much adore.

In fact, you look back on it
with tremendous fondness.

It's the happiest time in my life.

Yes, professionally in my life.

Yes. I can believe that, too,

and, of course, I mean,
you've developed in that time

a very special relationship, too,
didn't you, with Harry

and with Spike?

Yes. We worked like one person,
you know.

MUSIC: Ying Tong Song
by the Goons

My father was Spike Milligan,
a great friend of Peter's

and collaborator and sometimes
arch enemy,

but they loved each other deeply.

We have just been spinning
around the countryside

in Old Min - a 1928 Austin Heavy 12.

Old Min - obviously it's
a Goon Show name.

"Minardor." Min, Min, Min, Min, Min.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes?

It was joint ownership - it kind
of went between Dad and Peter,

but there seems to be quite a bit of
angst surrounding the ownership

of the vehicle. When they were
loving each other a lot,

they would gift it to each other.
When they didn't like each other

so much, they would send
a driver to take it away.

And I remember their conversations -
mainly on the telephone -

but Dad would have to lie
down on his back to talk to Peter

because he would laugh so...

They'd be laughing so much.

I don't know what was going on,
but it was hysteria.

Yeah, sensational,

but I'm sending you another pen

because it'd look funnier
in this pen.

A modern pen?

Spike and Peter were sort of both
troubled in different ways.

Spike was entirely concerned
with the artistry, and Peter -

the trappings of fame
were equally appealing.

And there's always inherent
tensions and competitiveness

in creative relationships.

I'm sure Peter Sellers' success
didn't help in that regard.

Around the same time as the Goons
started in 1951, he appeared

in a number of low-budget films.

They were attempts to make
a Goon Show on film.

Let's Go Crazy was thrown together

more or less on the spot with
a number of local

variety artists, and they turned
it into a film in its own right.

Now, Beatrice, what would
you have - vin blanc or vin ROOGY?

I'll leave it to you.

Righty-ho.

GARKON! Yes?

Oh...

Can we have two cups
of cooking wine?

Yes.

Peter Sellers was always a film fan,

so once he'd established himself

he really wanted to get into films.

His big first break
was in The Ladykillers.

TRAILER: No plot was ever hatched
with such Satanic cunning

as Guinness and his genial group of
merry minstrels hit every high note

in this delightfully
different entertainment.

He's magnificent in The Ladykillers.

Alec Guinness was his idol,

his Kind Hearts And Coronets
with Guinness playing

lots of characters.

That was something he always
wanted to do and emulate.

Darling, I am growing old...

He moved on to do several other
films, but it was really

The Mouse That Roared that got
Sellers noticed in the States.

In common with several

of his films of the period,
he plays three characters.

Peter Sellers
as the noble statesman.

There isn't a more profitable
undertaking for any country

than to declare
war on the United States

and to be defeated.

Peter Sellers as
the fearless leader.

Men of Fenwick, when you hear the
name of Grand Fenwick, do your

hearts swell with pride? Yes!

And if your country calls,

will you rush to enlist? No! Oh.

Peter Sellers as the Grand Duchess.

Do give my love to your

president, will you?

And Mrs Coolidge too.

My favourite character

in that film is when he's dressed
up in drag, his old duchess.

I think he's recreating
his grandmother there.

Ma Ray, her name was.

She was a sort of
matriarchal figure.

And there's his mother, Peg.

My grandparents were both
in theatre.

My grandfather was playing piano

and that's how he met
my grandmother -

who was actually on the stage.

Her main act was she dressed
up in white.

Mum used to stand there
in a white-tights thing.

It was a real daring thing then,
you see.

And they used to project slides onto
Mum and she would depict, you know,

various famous characters
from history as the slides changed

and my dad would be playing

the old joanna in the front there
or something like that.

So, here we have the original
slides that my grandmother

would have performed in front of.

I believe they were hand-painted
and, I mean, it's just stunning.

But to see that on the stage

probably did instil something
in him, and he was a baby

when all this was going on,

so even if he wasn't that
conscious of it, I think

it would have just been part of him.

My dad talked about these slides
quite often.

He retained a set throughout
his life.

They were obviously part
of his heritage

and were very important to him.

My grandmother was quite
controlling or she'd like to be.

But she was somebody
that was very important to him

and he was an only child,

so that relationship would
have been quite a strong bond.

Before my father was born,

Peg and Bill - my grandparents -

had a baby that was stillborn

and they actually called
him Peter,

so when my dad was born

he was called Richard Henry,

but, over time, he just became
known as Peter.

So, he was like a replacement child

in that respect and incredibly close

to his mother - a relationship
that people found a bit clingy,

a bit too close.

He called her Peg, you know -

he didn't call her Mum or Mother.

They were very, very close.

Peg was very affectionate -

yes, very affectionate to him.

They used to cuddle.

We have with us this evening

Mrs Agnes Sellers -
the well-known antique dealer

and candle maker -

and she's going to give her...give
us

her opinion of several pieces

of antique Georgian silver,
which have been obtained

for Mr Peter Sellers
by Mr David Mappin.

Mrs Sellers, could you give
us your judgment on these pair

of very exquisite candlesticks?

Would you say they are early...?

Would you say they are first,
second or third George?

I should say they were second.

I should think about
the 17th century.

He was always being bossed
around by her and dragged

around by her from
all these theatrical digs,

and I suppose a lot of his ambition

must have come from her,

because she very much
didn't want him to be

"a failure, like your father".

I really didn't like that period
in my life as a kid.

I didn't like the touring.

I didn't like the smell
of greasepaint. It used to hit

you when you went into any
stage door.

There's sort of a smell of size,

the stuff they paint on scenery, you
know? And greasepaint

and baritones with beer
on their breath and make-up

on their collar. Always deep voices.

"Hello, little sonny. How are you?
Are you all right, little boy?

"Dear little boy. Who is he?

"Who is he?"

And I used to spend my time sitting
in dressing rooms,

and whatnot, so didn't like that.

That is probably why I hated
being in the theatre.

Really? Yeah. It's amazing...

All connected.

..yes, and, having hated that, that
in fact you became involved in it.

But you learnt music
from your father, didn't you?

Can you remember a song
that Dad taught you from those days?

He used to sing a little song.

It's sort of very dated now,
but it's quite, you know, a sweet

little thing, really.

I've got an idea

Soon she'll be cooking
my breakfast

Wait and see, I haven't told her

She hasn't told me but we know it
just the same

Saturday night
on her settee...

When the Second World War broke out,

my father did join up,

but, because of his eyesight,

he wasn't allowed to actually
do anything.

So, he became an entertainer,

and I think some of the earliest
footage of him is in Burma.

I've got an idea soon
there'll be

One little, two little, possibly
three...

The Gang Show was an entertainment

thing done for the forces...

..that used to be on the front line.

It was a war but they didn't
shoot anybody.

They had to make the poor fellas
that were doing the shooting laugh.

Sellers' performance in the Gang
Shows took various forms.

He'd appear on stage in sketches.

He would play the drums
and ukulele as well.

He performed in India, Burma
and Ceylon, and he got

great affection for the people
of all of those countries.

He got to know them quite well
and was already picking up voices

and accents that he could use -

perhaps not deliberately -

but later he used the accent
in The Millionairess.

Beautiful day for a swim.

I'm not swimming.

I'm committing suicide.

Do you hear me?

I'm killing myself.

Jolly good luck to you.

It's obviously a rather ridiculous
film, but actually it made me think

that, really, you very rarely saw
in those days mixed - what we called

mixed-race relationships -

and my parents loved that film
because it reminded them, of course,

of themselves - an Indian man

and a white European woman.

It's all right.
I am a doctor, madam.

Of course.

But, in those days, you never
saw Indians in the cinema.

So, that's what's such a novelty,

and, of course, he's in brownface -
Peter Sellers -

and he's caricatured, but,
of course, so is Sophia Loren,

so are all the characters in that
film - are caricatured.

Oh, here. Here? Ah!

This is where it is hurting?

Oh, no, no, no, no, everywhere.

Yes, I see, yes.

This is quite, quite beautiful.

What an entirely perfect
trapezius you have here.

Quite gratifying. Quite gratifying.

I'm glad you approve of something
about me.

The first film that he was
in the middle of making

when I joined him was
The Millionairess.

It was the first film he did
with superstars, if you like,

because Sophia Loren was in it.

Show me your tongue.

Nothing wrong with it. Huh?

Put it away, please.

Her character's in love
with the Indian doctor, so therefore

Sellers thought she'd fallen
for him and he fell for her

and was convinced that they were
deeply in love with each other,

which was the first sign
of...madness.

No chance.

So that was all vaguely a figment
of his imagination.

It goes boom boody-boom boody-boom
boody-boom

Boody-boom boody-boom
boody-boom-boom-boom.

Oh!

He just got totally carried
away with it,

and he became besotted by her.

I'm not sure if the feeling
was returned, but, I mean, he felt

it was, and it was very genuine
to him.

He then treated me as his mother -

which I should allow him to do

whatever he wanted to do,

and he would come to me
with his problems about Sophia.

It got very difficult.

Just put two and two together

If you have eyes to see...

Sophia Loren is, in truth, the
reason that the relationship ended.

There is nothing I can do

For my heart is jumping too

We go boom boody-boom
boody-boom...

He went through a period where, you
know, he'd come home and he'd say,

"I can feel her. I can feel...

"She's in the room. Sophia's
presence is here,"

and I would say, "Well, I'll leave
you two to it, then."

I would, you know, go away.

How flirtatious

Goodness gracious.

He never wanted to split up.

He just wanted to be able to do
what he liked, wherever he liked,

and come back and tell Mama what was
going on, and I was supposed

to be sympathetic to him.

Well, it didn't actually work.

So, eventually, I guess I left.

As you know, I've been married
three times

and on three occasions

it really didn't work,

mainly - probably - due to the fact
that I'm impossible to live with,

although my first marriage was -

I mean, that was entirely my fault
that broke up.

Why so?

Oh, I just had a romance

with somebody I was working with
and, uh...

Would you care to say who?

Oh, well...

Boom diddy-boom diddy-boom
diddy-boom...

But anyway, I was terribly happily
married - that was the thing -

and I, um... Anyway...

Exquisite.

Beautiful.

Positively formidable.

He sort of wanted to marry me.

I had a happy marriage.

I had... I was in love
with my husband.

I had the best marriage ever.

It was a bizarre experience, really,

and he... I think he felt
that way about a lot of women.

What are you doing?

Nothing, darling - just making you
more comfortable, that's all. Huh?

And I remember - on Wrong Arm
Of The Law - we had a scene

where I had to get him into bed.

It was meant to be
a seduction scene,

and I had to gradually lift his
shirt and keep kissing his chest.

Well, that's all finished now - as
I say, it's corporation all the way.

Take next week, for example.
Yes, darling.

Peter found it hysterical.

We did the take 20, 30 times.

Peter went every time.

And finally, the director said,
"Look, we're going to break.

"Go and have a coffee. Calm down.

"Come back and we'll get it."

Came back, he was still laughing.

That was typical of Peter.

He would, once he'd started
to giggle and to laugh,

he could never get through a scene.

Lay in bed.

'Ere, you're getting a bit fresh,
ain't you?

Do you not think he did it for
a longer seduction, often?

Who knows? Nice... It'd be nice to
think that. I don't know.

Er, what about, er...?

Er, let me have a think.

You two exchanged gifts at the end
of filming.

What did you give Peter
and what did he give you?

Well, I gave Peter a book
of quotations,

La Rochefoucauld,
because I thought he'd like it,

and it was a very beautiful edition.

And he gave me an E-type Jaguar.

So it was a kind of...
SHE LAUGHS

..a kind of amazing gift.

Well, that will be all for now,
my dear.

Peter did ask me to marry him, um...

..but I think, you know, I think
the reason Peter asked me

to marry him was probably
because that's what Mr Hoffman

would have done.

Men who've missed the boat...

..but who still need love.

Well, Miss Smith...

..their day's coming.

The plot of Hoffman is...

I don't think it could be made
today.

It's about a middle-aged man

who blackmails a young,
vulnerable girl

into coming and living with him
for a week.

Miss Smith?
BOLT SLAMS SHUT

Please make yourself look as though
you want to be fertilised.

And during that week, he teaches
her about the finer things of life.

You know, he teaches her about how
to eat snails and how to play

the piano and how to enjoy nature.

Aren't you going to eat them?

I don't like them.

How do you know you don't like them
if you haven't tried them?

Go on, try one, Miss Smith.

Free yourself. Be venturesome.

It's a new eating experience.

Thinking about my time of working
and knowing Peter,

I suspect that he did...

..that there was a sort of
transference in him and he saw me,

in a way, as Janet Smith.

Because, when I think of the times
we spent together, he-he did love

introducing me to new experiences.

You know, Italian food, jazz.

He'd take me to Ronnie Scott's.
I'd never been to Ronnie Scott's.

Wonderful. Famously tried...

..tried to introduce me
to marijuana.

That didn't work out very well.

C'est si bon

De se dire des mots doux

De petits riens du tout...

From when I was little,
I just remember him being kind of

recognised by the public.

People would be whispering
and pointing and, you know,

suddenly he was earning
all this money

and he could really have
whatever he wanted.

He started to kind of really feel
that he was a superstar now.

But I think he was perhaps not happy
inside, and that's when things

did start to go wrong.

C'est tellement, tellement bon
C'est bon, c'est bon...

Peter and I met at a first-night
party.

Peter was in a break of about a week
while he was making Dr Strangelove.

And so we had a couple of really
nice dates before he went back

to filming.

Janette Scott, he suddenly decided,
he would like as his girlfriend.

And for the express purpose of it,

we had to go and find a flat
off the King's Road and buy it

that afternoon so that it
would be ready for that evening.

And I had to go in and prepare food
and everything for her.

He was very needy of my time, which
was fine when I wasn't working,

but I was preparing to start
a new film.

He asked me to marry him, and I said
we hadn't known each other

long enough to begin to talk
like that.

I didn't think that Janette
was right for him at all.

She was too nice a person, I was
going...!

She wasn't complicated enough.

Finally, while I was filming,
I was able to make a distance

between Peter and myself,
but we remained very good friends

for years.

Mr President, I would not rule out
the chance to preserve a nucleus

of human specimens.

It would be quite easy... Ha!

Ha! ..at the bottom of some

of our deeper mineshafts.

When he did Dr Strangelove,

he started off with great
enthusiasm because after all,

it was being directed by Stanley
Kubrick, who I would think

of all the directors,
he was very, um, admiring of.

He was very stressed,

and as a matter of fact,

he cried a couple of evenings
when he came round for dinner.

It was very difficult for him.

I don't know if he was having
trouble with Stanley Kubrick

or whether it was just the stress
of playing so many parts.

Sellers played the British RAF
officer and the president.

He also played Dr Strangelove
and he was supposed to play

the character that was later on
taken on by Slim Pickens.

Stories vary as to why
he didn't play this character.

He'd got bored by then, anyway,
or that's what he said.

And in fact, he...

..did actually come back
with a broken bone in his ankle.

And we think that that was probably
a put-up job.

Kubrick would just set up loads
of cameras on Sellers

and just let him improvise.

So that marvellous speech
in Dr Strangelove

with the American president
on the phone

talking to the Russian president as
nuclear annihilation approaches,

Sellers was able just
to come up with that.

One of our base commanders,
he had a sort of...

Well, he went a little funny in the
head.

You know, just a little...funny.

And, um, he went and did
a silly thing.

Well, I'll tell you what he did.
He ordered his planes...

..to attack your country.

A... Well, let me finish, Dimitri.

Let me finish, Dimitri.

Well, listen, how do you think
I feel about it?

Can you imagine how I feel
about it, Dimitri?

He would simply refuse to do
it more than the once.

And also, Kubrick realised that the
comic energy would evaporate,

and that the more takes you did,

Sellers became increasingly
deadened.

So he realised that you just,
in a way, did it in one big block

and then edited later.

Sellers wasn't someone who could
repeat a scene the same.

He wasn't a technician like that.

It was all instinctive.

Ha!

Agh!

Kubrick managed to contain
and focus his talent,

which he himself was not
particularly good at.

Um, but...

..Kubrick managed to harness it in a
really effective, worthwhile way.

We had an idea about how Dr
Strangelove himself should appear.

And Stanley said, "What about the
idea that his hand had been injured

"in some terrible nuclear fallout
experiment?"

So then we put this black glove
on, and then suddenly,

from the black glove, we got the
idea that half of him was Nazi

and half was American, you see,

and suddenly, this hand started to
go up.

Well, this came out of just talking
and throwing ideas at each other.

This part is fine. I enjoy this.

I enjoy working with a creative
director who can sling ideas

to you and you can sling them back,
and out of it comes something good.

Kubrick liked working with Sellers
enormously because Sellers had a way

of becoming a character. He'd do
more than just take on the part.

He would become that character
and he would enter what Kubrick

called "a state of comic ecstasy".

I have a plan.

Mein Fuhrer! I can walk!

We'll meet again

Don't know where, don't know when

But I know we'll meet again some
sunny day...

And then there was Britt.

We'll meet again...

She was like a fairy-tale princess.

She was enchanting.

Beautiful.

She was intelligent.

She was talented.

..meet again some sunny day.

The whole purpose of me
coming to England, to London

was to be launched as the new star
with a contract

with 20th Century Fox.

I was staying at the Dorchester.

I was in the bath and there was
a knock on the door

and I just wrapped a towel around me

and rushed to open
up the door and there was...

..this very tall gentleman.

He said, "Hello. My name is Bert.

"I'm Mr Sellers' valet."

And I didn't quite understand
anything, um...

Then he said, you know, would
I like to come to his suite?

I was staying at the Dorchester
while I was doing a film.

And one evening, I looked in the
paper and saw Britt's picture,

and that she had just arrived
in England.

And I thought what I saw
was very good.

And I thought that I would
like to meet what I saw.

He asked me if I wanted to go to the
movies. Yeah, I loved the movies.

And so we drove to Odeon Square
and that was The Pink Panther.

And he doesn't have to pay
for the tickets.

And I was like, "What is this?

"He gets everything for free."

And then, it's his name there.

And then we started seeing
the film and...

..I loved it.

We must find that woman.

What was that? What did you say?

After the film, we just sit there,

we're drinking champagne.

Then he took me out on the terrace
and I remember him kissing me.

And then I woke up in my own room
the next morning, fully clothed.

And after a couple of days,
I had to go to New York

to do promotion on the other side
of the Atlantic.

And they said, "There's a phone call
for you."

And I thought, "For me?"

And it was Peter Sellers.

He asked me if I wanted to marry...

No, he didn't ask me.

He just said, you know,
"I have told the press

"that we're going to get married."

OK.

How did you come to propose?

We proposed over the phone, really,
didn't we? Well, yes.

Um, over the long-distance phone,
you know?

Would you say it was a strange
love, Doctor?

We proposed via Telstar!

Um, no.

Actually,
you know

that it's very nice, you know,
to have this proposal in this way.

Yeah, very glad. We are going
down the mineshaft later

for our honeymoon, you know?

Where we hope to breed
prodigiously, ahem!

Yes!

Everything went crazy.

You know, the English people
really immediately took

to this fairy-tale story
of their most favourite actor

and this little creampuff
from Sweden.

NEWSREEL: He met her at a reception
in London.

He proposed after knowing her only
two days.

Will 20th Century Fox be the first
to star

Peter Sellers and Britt Ekland
together?

Peter's fiancee is already under
contract to the company.

I can remember Bert and myself
going round to the flat

when they were both there,
and him breaking the news

that he was getting married.

And so we sort of said,
"Congratulations,"

and thought, "Good heavens!
Extraordinary."

Zoo Be Zoo
Be Zoo...

Then before we knew where we were,
he was going to marry her.

He was quicksilver, wasn't he?

Zoo Be Zoo Be Zoo,
Zoo Be Zoo, Zoo Be Zoo

Means that I love you

Zoo Be Zoo Be Zoo...

By the time we met and we married
was probably a period

of about a little more
than three weeks.

Britt, how does it feel
to be Mrs Sellers?

Wonderful. Wonderful, wonderful.

Is he going to make you
a good husband, do you think?

Oh, I know he will be the most
perfect in the world.

How do you feel, Peter? Well, pretty
great today, I must say.

My father just accepted
the fact that he was so much older

than me because he was famous.

Um, you know, fame has this effect
that...

..it doesn't matter what you do
or who you are.

If you're famous, that's all
that's valuable.

NEWSREEL: Here, we photograph the
homecoming

of Mr and Mrs Peter Sellers.

Britt was wearing Peter's wedding
present mink coat to keep her warm.

He decided what I was going to wear.

I had no say in this.

He just pre-decided everything
without even asking me.

I was at boarding school.

I was told to get my stuff together
because I was going out for the day,

but nobody told me what.

And the driver picked me up,
possibly Bert,

said it was because Father
was getting married.

And we arrived here...

..an hour or so later and the place
was just encamped.

Zo Bee Zo Be Zoo
I can't explain this feeling...

We didn't actually get to go
to the wedding ceremony,

which I can remember.
I would have liked to have done.

I think it's aged. I think we
actually watched it on telly...

Yes, quite probably. ..on the day.

Zoo Be Zoo Be Zoo
Our hearts are close together...

It was very joyful. It was... All
the friends were there.

On the whole, I would say it
was a very lovely time in my life.

Now, darling, this is being
recorded,

everything we're saying now.
Oh, I love you!

Can you hear that, folks?
I love you!

She said she loved me.

We got married on the Wednesday
and he left Saturday

and I started working Monday.

Well, Peter's leaving
for Hollywood, next week, no? Mm-hm.

And I have to stay here because I'm
going to work here, 23rd February.

I'd never seen him so happy.

I'd only been with him,
well, a couple of years

at that point in time.

But he had something to do.
He was occupied.

He had a big interest.
He had a lovely lady on his arm.

And she genuinely, as far
as I could see, loved him.

They were good to begin
with, but she didn't know

what she was letting herself in for,
I don't think.

She was very young
and probably didn't realise

what a difficult life
it was going to be for her.

I worked for three weeks
on the film and then it was Easter,

and he called me and said,

"Ask the production if you can
have an extra day off."

And they said no.

And he just said, "After filming
on Friday, just get your passport.

"This is taken care of."

And someone picked me up and drove
me to the airport,

put me on a plane,

and the next thing I know, I land in
California...

..where I'd never been before, and
with no clothes,

just my passport.

The plan was that I would land,
I would spend the weekend

with Michael and Sarah,
and then I would fly back.

And then, of course, when I arrived
he said,

"Oh, I have a doctor here looking at
you because you don't look well."

And the doctor said, "No, no,
she's suffering strain and stress."

OK. And, "You can't possibly go back
filming,

"you know, you're not well enough."
OK.

Were you suffering strain and
stress? No, of course not!

I was 21 years old. Fit as a fiddle.

But, um...

..I had no choice.

I couldn't have said, "I'm sorry...

"..I love you, but I've got to
go back to work now."

That... There was no option for
that.

It was just, "You are ill.
The doctor's here.

"He has proved that you're ill.

"You're going to stay and take
it easy."

And, um, that was it.

I was fired from the film because I
was replaced by Mia Farrow.

NEWSREEL: She's been picked to
replace Britt Ekland.

Britt, you'll remember, was starring
in Guns At Batasi

when she decided to fly to Hollywood

to be near her husband, Peter
Sellers.

Now the part will be played
by this cool blonde newcomer,

who took this press call at Pinewood
just before going on the set.

And so that was my career over.

He paid out of his own pocket,
I suppose, for her to leave

the film, compensate them, um...

..because he was so besotted with
her, wanted her attention full-time.

I was taken straight back
to our marble palace.

He took me into the bedroom,
which was all gold and white.

And then next to it was
a walk-in closet,

which I had never seen before.

And he'd bought everything
you could possibly need as a woman

who didn't have any clothes,
from evening gowns to bikinis.

The bikini was actually made of
mink.

Um, and...

..I just...I was floored.

Then Michael and Sarah came over
with Hattie

and we went to Disneyland.

And we had royal treatment there.

I mean, everybody, you know...
We didn't have to queue

for any rides.

It was fantastic because
he was who he was.

In LA, of course, there was
lovemaking involved and he used

his amyl nitrate pills.

I don't think they called them
poppers in those days.

But he took that and then
we were going to drink champagne

and he spilt it on the bed,

and, you know, I decided
we had to change the sheets.

And then suddenly he just went...

SHE INHALES SHARPLY

..and put his arm out and he said,
"I know what this is."

I believe he had
eight heart attacks.

MACHINE BEEPS

When he came into the hospital
as an emergency in the ICU,

it was not believed
that he would survive.

Then, when he came through,

the doctors knew
he was going to make it,

I had to have a press conference.

Hello.

Little me in the hospital,
which was very scary

cos, what can I say?

I could just say that, you know,
"Thank God that he has survived."

This, for me, is the first time
I've seen a hospital really

from the inside,
and I know it is for him, too.

He's been wonderful all the time.

And he really helped the doctors
in that way,

that he is all the time
trying to joke

with the nurses, and everything.

He was worldwide news.

I mean, you couldn't pass
a newspaper stall,

or the phone never stopped ringing.

And all we wanted to do
was to get the children back.

It was decided that
I should fly with them.

I remember stepping off the plane
here in London.

It was just like
a sea of flashing lights.

And of course, we were shuffled
to the front of the plane to get

them out first.

And that was why -
for all these pictures.

We weren't really aware
of what was going on.

They are too young to realise really
how critical the whole thing was.

I think his son, he's ten years old,
did understand it.

But we managed to make it that
way that they shouldn't worry.

Whether he was aware of
what had happened to him

and the extent of what had happened
to him, I really don't know,

because we sort of never
talked about it.

All I knew was that
I was taught how to give injections

and how to take his blood pressure.

I effectively became his nurse.

I had eight heart arrests, you see,
eight in a row, which is very rare.

I never do things by halves,
you know!

And...

But, as I say, the good thing

about it is that, according
to all these chaps,

and I do hope they know what
they're talking about, you know,

that I'm not booked for
the old wooden overcoat yet.

In fact, how near were you
to dying?

Dying, I actually died
for one and a half minutes.

I did expire for
one and a half minutes.

And they were very lucky
to get me around again,

because your brain deteriorates
after that, you see,

from the lack of blood
to the brain.

Anyway, you know,
I wouldn't say there's any...

No sign at the moment
of damage to the brain, you know?

Peter didn't talk about
his ailments at all.

But he went through a period of time
where he wanted to be really fit

and do a lot of exercise
and eat the proper foods

and lose weight and all that.

Mr Gough? Mr Gough?

Could I tear you away for a moment?

Would you like to sit down
for a while?

I was doing Not Only... But Also
with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.

I think it was 1965.

I got this phone call from Peter
saying could he be in the show.

He said,

"You know, having these heart
attacks, the insurance Herberts,

"you know, they're a bit
doubtful about my health,

"and working in movies, you've
got to get a clean bill of health.

"So I'd really like to
show them I'm fit."

So he turned up and I wrote
this scene where he plays a boxer.

A boxer-turned-action-painter.

Well, we're going to look very
shortly at one of

Mr Gough's latest paintings.

By the way, who is this person
here you're painting?

What are you talking about,
"Who is it?"?

Who is this person?

The Archbishop of Canterbury.

Who is it?
It's the Archbishop of Canterbury!

It's the Archbishop of Canterbury,
is it? Yes.

Course it's the
Archbishop of Canterbury.

Yes, of course it is.

You know, he gets up with the
palette and hits the board and,

in fact, almost knocks
the easel onto the ground

because he hits it so hard.

Sign it. Sign it.

Ah!

My marriage to Peter Sellers
was like being on a roller-coaster.

I would have to constantly
be on my toes.

I've looked in my diaries
and it always says the word "gral".

G-R-A - with two dots on it - L.

And that means fight in Swedish.

There's been enough crying.

Take this soap and wash those lips
off your face.

I hate you! I hate you till I die!

He cast her in his own films
and they made two together called

The Bobo and After the Fox.

And one day, people will point to me
in the street

and say, "That's her.
That's Gina Romantica."

He tries to turn
Britt into Sophia Loren.

Sophia!

Hello, my darling.

No, Sophia, I told you,
I'm busy with Tony Powell.

I am sorry, Sophia.

You will have to get somebody else.

Sophia, I'm sorry, my darling.

There's no part for you
in the picture.

Peter wasn't very kind to her
about her performance.

He didn't think that
she'd done very well at all.

He was awful to her, really
bullying, because, I suppose,

I don't know, he imagined that she'd
be some other kind of an actress.

Delinquent! Snake!

Harlot! Card!

Tramp! Starlet!

You are never to mention
acting again.

And you are to put down
that flowerpot!

She never misses.

The threats of divorce came,
basically, every Friday night.

But... And then by Monday,
there would be a make-up lunch,

or a make-up present.

He obviously suffered from,
or was, bipolar.

But very severely bipolar.

He was a very tormented soul
who should have had more help,

but instead he was enabled because
he was such a valuable asset.

During the filming, we lived in
Via Appia Antica and one day he gets

a phone call saying that Peg is ill.

As she was dying, I used to have to
go and visit her and talk to her,

instead of him doing it,
because he was too busy.

Peg passed away
and he didn't go back.

And I can't explain why that was.

Why didn't he return to England?

He was filming.

But if it's your mother dying,
you would think

that that would be the one time that
he could actually excuse himself

a day to go and see her,
but obviously never did.

And then when my mother died,
although I had children alive,

she was the last close relative.

I felt a great feeling
of loneliness.

I just couldn't pick up the phone
and speak to my mother any more.

I felt that a lot.

I felt that a lot.

Maybe a year later, we flew to Rome

and we go out and have dinner.

And of course,
there was a lot of paparazzi.

And instead of putting your hand
over your face, or sneaking, or coat

over, I just said,
"Let them have the picture.

"And then we'll go
and do what we want to do."

And he didn't like that.

So back at the hotel,
he just went on and on and on.

And it was like having a drone
over my head with the sound.

And this just continued all night.

And he took my radio and smashed it.

And in the end, maybe 5:00 in the
morning, cos it was light outside,

he called our agent, Franco,
and said - he just said,

"Come and pick her up."

I knew that this time something
broke and I could never go back.

The two films that he made in Italy,
The Bobo and After The Fox,

were crushing defeats.

He was going through
a bad period of his life, then,

and I think probably
regretted sort of trying to

boost Britt's career.

He was always anxious about the work
he'd done, whether it was as good

as he thought it was going to be.

And sometimes, perhaps didn't always
make the best choices of films.

Casino Royale is a rubbish film.

You know, I mean,
it makes no sense at all.

I believe you have my name
in a crevice. James Bond.

Pardon, monsieur? Bond.

James Bond.

Oh, yes, Mr Bond.

Bond. James Bond? Name is familiar.

But at the time, it was the most
expensive movie being made.

It was my first feature film.

Halfway through the shooting,
Peter said,

"That's it, from now on, I don't
want to appear in the same set-up.

"I don't want any wide shots of
Orson Welles. Send me home today.

"When you finish shooting
Orson's stuff, as per the script...

"..I'll come back in,
we'll read through Orson's script,

"and we'll see what you've shot,
we'll run it,

"..and then I can be funnier
than he is."

Aren't you a little
out of your depth, Mr Bond?

In the last 20 minutes I have ruined
two Greeks and a Maharajah.

No, Mr Bond,
we aren't playing for marbles.

The night is young

and the Rose Garden is already
littered with my victims.

I said, "Look, apart from
the dishonesty of doing that,

"I think you're
cheating the audience."

"No, I don't care.
You've got to get rid of him."

I said, "You're behaving
like a spoilt boy."

Woof.

And he hit me.
You know, right on the chin.

But I managed to duck a bit
and it sort of glanced off.

So I hit him back.

And then we grabbed each other
and started wrestling around.

And Gerry Crampton,
who was the stuntman,

came over and separated us.

And he said, "I don't know which
one to hit. I love you both."

Thank you.

And welcome to France,
Monsieur Bond.

I mean, I have a name of
being very difficult.

I'm not difficult at all.

I just cannot take mediocrity.

I just cannot take it on any level.

And I'm not difficult.

It's just when people
just don't seem to know,

or have the basic knowledge of,
what makes A and B tick,

that gets me, you know.

For example, I am often written up
as being, er,

you know, nasty on the set.

I'm not nasty on the set at all.

The end product is all that matters.

The end product.

Twice-married ex-Goon,
comedian and actor Peter Sellers

makes it three as he arrives at
Caxton Hall in London

for his wedding to
23-year-old Miranda Quarry.

The next marriage was
the forgotten marriage

to a sort of aristocratic lady.

She's like Peter's forgotten movies.

It's his forgotten wife.

Hundreds of sightseers were there
to wish the happy couple

all the best.

That didn't last for long either.

And in fact,
nor did their honeymoon.

One morning we couldn't find him.

And then the ship-to-shore
phone rang, and it was him.

He'd booked himself into a hotel,
and he'd left his bride of weeks

on the yacht with me.

And we couldn't work out why.

And he was just... I think
he regretted it almost immediately.

Yes! And we're in love.
It's frightfully good.

And then, of course,
there was Liza Minnelli.

That was hot off the press.

Liza Minnelli, that's right.

He made that very obvious
when he was still married.

So...

If and when you get married,
you'll be the fourth Mrs Sellers.

Does this frighten you at all?

Oh, no. Four is my lucky number,
my dear.

They were contemplating
marriage very seriously.

After how long?

Oh, after...a week.

I'm going to marry her, aren't I?

But I can't now
cos I'm married, aren't I?

I mean, that's the trouble.
But I'm getting div...

Oh, well, when I get my di...

I have to be careful here
because of all the ice creams.

Now then...

What does that mean? Translate.
Freezers. Translate.

Geezers. Geezers?
Ice cream freezers. Ice... Oh.

All right.

Everybody was buzzing about it.

Are they going to?

Aren't they going to?

They were hounded by the press
and ended up back in Belgravia

at the house.

There was only one way in
and only one way out.

And there were dozens
of press outside.

And it was like being snowed in.

I was young at the time,
and my husband did not like me

working for...erm,
somebody in their home.

A man.

And it was causing problems
in our marriage, and it was going

through quite a rocky patch.

So Liza was asking me about my life
and I told her what was going on.

And she told me how wonderful
it was to have found Peter.

And she had this necklace here,
which was a love charm.

She told me,

"I've found Peter now and I'm so
happy, and it's worked for me."

And she took it off
and she gave it to me.

And I thought,
"What a generous thing to do."

I call it my Liza Minnelli necklace.

What happened next
with Peter and Liza?

As quickly as it started, it ended.

And again.
And again. That's lovely.

Land ahead!

Land ahead!

Who says I can't navigate?

Ghost In The Noonday Sun
didn't make any sense.

The film was absolutely doomed
for disaster from day one.

Now, then, little duck.

Let's see you get out of this.

Fire!

Look at that!

He was incredibly depressed
because of it -

I think Liza just left him - and
realised that this could never work.

And so my problems with Peter
started at that point.

Where he'd change his mind, and this
was the best project ever, you know.

And then suddenly it'd become
the worst project.

Watch out for me, Bombay.

There's a power of strength
in them shoulders, there.

Ah!

And if you wore green,
he went absolutely bananas,

and started jumping around and
throwing salt over his shoulder

and doing this kind of insane dance,
you know.

And I said, "We're cursed

"and that's why we're having all
these problems on the production."

Ha!

The salt!

I spilt the salt.

That's bad luck, is that.

It's bad luck spilling the salt.

I've spilt that salt.

I feel extremely vulnerable
and that I need help.

A lot. A lot.

I suppose I feel mainly
that I need the help of a woman.

So, I'm just continually searching
for this woman.

This woman, you know, this...

I keep reading of these great women
behind men, who support them

and push them forward,
and they mother you...

..they're great in bed,

they're like a sister,

they're not there when you don't
want to see them and they are there

when you want to see them.

I don't know where they are.
Maybe they're around somewhere.

I'll find one one of these days.

He used to sort of show people,

even his children,
photographs of various candidates

for who he should marry next.

Lay back, as I'm going
to come over you like this.

Fantastic.

One day Sarah went up to my
father's flat and he pulls out

these two pictures and he said,

"Now, which one of these
shall I marry?"

It just seemed a bit...bizarre way
to decide who you were going to go

out with, to ask me which one
I liked, you know, whose picture

I liked best.

And Sarah, you know, at a loss, she
didn't know either of the people.

So she pointed to Lynne
for some reason.

I now pronounce you man and wife.

I read in the paper
that they'd got married. Really.

I mean, I knew they were together.

And, I mean, I'd seen her
quite a lot out and about,

and there was rumours of marriage.

Well, I knew with my father,
when he got serious with them,

you know, it was either marriage
or out the door very soon.

One or the other, usually.

Lynne Frederick was in
The Prisoner Of Zenda

and looked a million dollars.

When Peter was due on the set,

the PAs would move Lynne to sit
somewhere else so that when Peter

got on the set,
she wasn't seen having a good time.

I think he was quite insecure
about her.

With good reason.

I think he was forever
forgiving Lynne for...

..um...

..her very...flagrant...

..humiliation of him.

I'll pray for you.

And I'll dream about you
for the rest of my life.

In the sort of
later part of his life,

perhaps I didn't talk to him as much

because I guess, um...

..the fact that he married
several times

and we didn't always see eye to eye
with his current wife.

So our relationship was different.

In the beginning of the...
of Lynne and my dad,

and me meeting her and, you know,

going on vacations with them,

she was, like, incredible.

That was all smoke and mirrors.

Later in life,
she controlled the show.

She basically cut his food
on his plate for him

and put it into his mouth.

And she could make my father like,
dislike or hate something.

Bert had been with him
I don't know how many years.

And he trusted him with everything.

He was a really good person.

For some reason,
Lynne took against him.

She worked at it and she worked
at it and she worked at it,

until in the end, Peter called me in

and he started to dictate
this letter.

And it was basically telling Bert
he no longer required his services.

It was heartbreaking. It was awful.

He was devastated.

I couldn't understand it.

I still don't understand it today,
why, after all I had given...

He'd given a lot as well.
But we also gave.

And even today, I just can't...

..I can't tell you why.

Lynne got rid of everyone
he'd ever been close to,

including his children.

With Michael and Sarah,

I met them sort of briefly
a couple of times.

And then my real memory of them,
of course,

are the hateful letters
that he wrote

saying that he didn't want
anything to do with them.

Often he would write a letter
to someone,

and if I held it for
a couple of days, he'd come down

and we would never send it.

And so my hope, certainly
the first time this happened,

was that he wouldn't do it,
but he did.

I had to mail them.
And I did call Michael,

because I just couldn't bear
the thought that these letters

saying, basically,
"You're no longer my son,"

would arrive
and he would have no warning.

How do you get that angry to pen
a letter, like, that says that?

And not just once, but twice.

Who says that to their children
that have done nothing to them?

There was always the excuse
of his illness

for keeping people away from him.

Looking back at it now,

I think it was more about
keeping him isolated.

And I think then she started
to think more in terms of the will

and what's going to happen.

I suppose you'll think I am too old

for such a young and ravishing
creature such as yourself.

How old are you?

Oh, I am...

..168.

Oh! I don't think age matters.

He quite often looked like
a man beaten on Fu Manchu.

There was... The days when he was
really upbeat

and on good form were much rarer.

And we'd have... He'd say,

"Oh, this scene, it's not working,
it's not working,"

we'd all have to
go and smoke a joint

or have a vitamin B12 injection.

Bring forth the elixir vitae

and let me drink!

GONG

I think he was very committed
to Fu Manchu because the parallel

between Peter and poor old Fu

was they were both
looking for eternal youth

and some elixir to kind of
make themselves more potent

or more attractive.

I feel fantastic!

He was ill.
I mean, he was really ill.

We were actually helping him
without...

..trying to let people not notice
that we were helping him,

walking onto the set.
He was that ill.

It was not a happy time.

There was a melancholy about Peter,
wasn't there?

I think the marriage had shifted
and changed and become,

you know, less happy
or even more unhappy.

I don't think you would call it
a marriage by that point.

I mean, they had...
He had been ill for so long

that the gap in the age
was really showing at that point.

So here we have the last
will and testament of my grandad.

So, this was made around
the time that he was

preparing to divorce Lynne.

I mean, it even says it in the will.

Um, just here.

"As adequate provision has been made
for my wife Lynne Frederick Sellers

"in a separation agreement,

"it is my express wish
that no provisions

"be made for her in my will."

So the odd thing about this is that
about six months later,

there's a handwritten codicil

that basically reinstates Lynne,

and he's leaving
his residuary estate to her,

which is basically everything,

so about $10 million,
all of his properties,

all the royalties from his films
and all of his possessions.

And it leaves my dad and my aunts,

his children,
with effectively nothing.

At the time he wrote this up,

my grandad and Lynne
had been separated for a while.

My grandad was living in Switzerland
and Lynne was living in LA.

But I remember my dad saying
my grandad got lonely that winter.

And he wanted Lynne back.

So I guess this is the price
he paid.

I think this really ate my dad up.

It played on him
throughout his life.

I mean, he died 15 years ago
of similar circumstances

to my grandad.

And I don't think
he ever really got over

how things were left with him
and Peter.

They felt very rejected.
By the will?

By the will. Not the money,
but the sort of public rejection.

And it was humiliating.

I think it was a whim of his.

I think he...

Well, he never thought he was going
to die until he was 75 anyway.

He was quite convinced.
This is because...

Well, this was because he...
He was superstitious?

Yes, very superstitious.
And he went to a clairvoyant

who had told him
he was going to marry four wives,

and he was going to be
a household name,

and he was going to die
when he was 75, you see.

So there's no reason
to believe any different.

So I think with the will, it was one
of these sort of petulant things.

He came over from Switzerland
on a private jet, to the Dorchester,

where he was going to be having
this reunion dinner

with the Goons that night.

And Sellers had said in advance
to Spike,

you know, it was all over
with Lynne,

and he was going to leave everything
to the children and all this.

And he was coming over to see
his solicitor

to get all this ratified.

We were sat having lunch
and I was talking to Peter.

And he kept saying,
"Don't go, don't go."

I got up and I said,
"I really do have to go, Peter."

And he said, "Could you get me
a glass of water before you go?"

And I walked,
so I turned my back to him,

walked to get some water.

And I heard this thump.

And I turned round
and he was on the floor.

He'd fallen.

And he was already going
that ghastly purple-black colour.

Peter Sellers is now said
to be gravely ill.

His condition has been getting worse
throughout the day.

And the latest news
from the Middlesex Hospital

is that he's still in a coma.

Sellers, who's 54, had
his fourth heart attack yesterday

and immediately members
of his family began arriving

from abroad, including his daughter
Victoria and his former wife

Britt Ekland,
who flew in from Stockholm.

His wife, Lynne Frederick, arrived
at Heathrow from Los Angeles

this afternoon
and drove straight to the hospital.

Afterwards, she said, "There wasn't
even a flicker of recognition.

"He was completely unconscious."

I remember travelling back to the UK
and going to the hospital to see him

and with all the tubes
and everything in him,

and it freaked me out.

And then I remember
how strange Lynne behaved,

almost like she didn't
have time for us or anything.

She was, like...
had all these meetings and things.

We all left that evening,
they said to us,

"Nothing's going to happen
overnight."

You know, "He's stable,
as stable as he's going to be,

"go home, get some rest."

And everybody left. We all left.

And I'd just got to my home
and the phone rang and they said,

"Please come back.
He's passed away."

And he...

And this is the most terrible thing.

And I always feel so dreadful
about this.

For the man who never wanted to be
on his own,

never, ever wanted to be alone,

he was alone at the end.

And to me, that is heartbreaking.

REPORTER: The cremation was attended
by family and close friends only.

But hundreds waited in torrential
rain for a glimpse of the coffin.

The heavens opened.

As we drove into Golders Green,
into the chapel there,

it was like the end of the world.

It rained so hard.

Anyway, we finally got out,
we got in there,

and all the doors closed
and the service started.

And then it was clack, clack, clack,
clack, clack, clack, clack,

heels, and there was Britt

looking stunning in black and white

with a huge pussycat bow.

I mean, talk about an entrance
to a funeral!

Peter would have approved,
I think, he really would.

But someone didn't?
Lynne did not, no.

The Church of England service ended

with the actor's favourite tune,
In The Mood.

Afterwards, his son Michael
helped his father's fourth wife,

Lynne Frederick, from the chapel.

His two daughters,
Sarah and Victoria, followed,

and Peter Sellers' second wife,
actress Britt Ekland,

stopped to talk to Canon John
Hester, who conducted the service.

I felt that I should be there,
because of the children.

If you're nice and polite,
that's what you do.

So I didn't sit with the family,
I sat far back in the...

..in the place and, you know,

just left everyone alone,
but I was there.

And I think
I should have been there.

I don't think there was
anything wrong with that.

I remember being next to Lynne

and she was complaining that
my mother had been there

and that she didn't want her there.

And it was pretty horrible.

As soon as he died,
she lived in Beverly Hills

and she bought the entire
Yves Saint Laurent collection,

and just lived
the most extravagant life.

And shortly after that,
she married David Frost.

And shortly after that,
they divorced.

And then she was having a lot
of different relationships

with people, very Hollywood,

very...

You know, it was very much
the time of cocaine

and, who cares?

When Sellers died, she could then
play the great role of her life,

which was Mrs Peter Sellers.

She'd been married to David Frost.

She was married to then someone
else, I think a heart surgeon.

But she was still Mrs Peter Sellers
on her credit cards

and watched his films over and over.

I understand that Lynne was
really obsessed with him

and went from this pretty woman
to this sad alcoholic.

My last memory of Lynne is
I visited her,

and she was, like, 350 pounds.

And the place was
not that furnished,

but it was still a nice place.

We were in the kitchen,
and she opened the cabinet

and it was like a vodka jug
with the handle,

you know, those big ones.
And she took a swig.

She got through a lot of her fortune
on cocaine and alcohol.

And she died.

In the last years
of my grandad's life,

he made quite a few bad films,

particularly Zenda,

and he made another one called
Fu Manchu.

ALL: Happy birthday to Fu...

However, sandwiched between
these two pretty bad films

was a really good one.

It was a project
he was trying to

get off the ground
for quite a while.

A lot of people think
it's his masterpiece.

That film's called Being There.

In Being There,
my grandad only plays one role,

a character called Chance.
He's a gardener.

He's lived quite a simple life,
shuttered off from the world.

Then, through a series of
sheer flukes,

he ends up mixing with the highest
levels of American society.

Mr President,

I want you to meet my
very dear friend,

Mr Chauncey Gardiner.

Hmm!

On television, Mr President,
you look much smaller.

I must warn you that Chauncey
is not a man to bandy words!

I don't really know
what attracted him to this role.

It could be a few things.

He could have wanted to play
something completely different

to anything he'd ever played before.

He could have been trying to play

what you might think of
as a blank slate.

His Chance is a little like that.

Or he might have been trying
to recapture the happy moments

that he spent making the home movies
with my dad and the gardener.

Being There, for me, is probably
the earliest memory I have

of finding out about my grandad.

Funnily enough, it was on TV,
and my dad sat me down to watch it

and he explained to me
who my grandad was

and that we were about to see him.

And come to the end of the film,

Chance is walking onto the water

and he keeps on walking and
eventually he just disappears off.

This is my grandad,
the first time I've seen him,

and at the end of it, he disappears
and he's left me already.

And I was inconsolable.
I couldn't stop crying.

I didn't know what to do.

My dad had to calm me down.
It was horrible.

I was just genuinely really sad
about the whole thing.

Then, maybe without knowing it,

this is the first time I realised
that I can see and hear my grandad,

but I'm never going to know him.

I'm never going to know
the real Peter Sellers.