Escape plans

HOLIDAY DEALS

almost surrealist approach to the insanity of things”.

Elvis Presley loved Peter Sellers and the Pink Panther movies so much he always took the films with him when he was on tour. Peter also found himself moving in the same circles as Princess Margaret and The Beatles, while a young Prince Charles was also said to be a huge fan of The Goon Show.

But Peter’s personal relationships suffered as his success grew and the four-times married actor said himself: “If I can’t really find a way to live

Peter as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau of the Pink Panther movies with myself, I can’t expect anyone else to live with me.”

His first marriage to Anne Hayes ended in divorce after he fell under the spell of Italian film star Sophia Loren while filming The Millionairess in 1960. They ended up having two UK chart hits – Goodness Gracious Me and Bangers And Mash. He later admitted: “I was never in love with any woman as deeply as I was with Sophia.”

He married Swedish actress Britt Ekland after knowing her for just 10 days and police had to be called in to control the crowds during their wedding ceremony at Guildford register office. He went on to tie the knot with Miranda Quarry, the step-daughter of Lord Mancroft and his fourth and final wife was actress Lynne Frederick.

They appeared together in the movie The Prisoner Of Zenda and Peter said: “I’ve had three marriages end in disaster. Lynne knew the score when she married me.” He found it difficult to watch himself in films. “I writhe when I see myself on the screen,” he admitted. “I’m such a dreadfully clumsy hulking image. I say to myself, ‘Why doesn’t he get off? Why doesn’t he get off?’ I mean, I look such an idiot. Some fat awkward thing dredged up from some third-rate drama company”.

Playing reclusive gardener

Chance, in 1979 movie Being There, was his last major film role and saw him nominated for an Oscar for the third and last time. “Most actors want to play Othello, but all I’ve really wanted to play is Chance the gardener,” he said.

“I feel what the character, the story is all about is not merely the triumph of a simple man, an illiterate. It’s God’s message again that the meek shall inherit the Earth.”

Peter had plans to return to the role of Inspector Clouseau once more in Romance Of The Pink Panther, opposite Pamela Stephenson, but passed away before filming could begin.

A few weeks before he died he sent a poignant telegram to his old friend and fellow Goon, Spike Milligan simply saying: “Dear Spike. I am desperate to have some real fun again with you and Harry

[Secombe].

Please can we get together and write some more Goon Shows? We could place them anywhere. I don’t want any money – I will work just for the sheer joy of being with you both again as we were. Love Peter.”