BBC SPECIAL TO EXPLORE SELLERS’ DARK CORNERS
A documentary about comedy icon Peter Sellers looks at the turbulent personal life of the Pink Panther star
TO one generation of fans he was the multi-voiced Goon, to another the bumbling Inspector Clouseau who could bring the house down simply by opening his mouth.
For more than 30 years, on radio and TV, in theatres and cinemas, Peter Sellers left people doubled up with laughter. He fully deserved that overused accolade ‘comedy genius’ and his death in 1980 – he was just 54 - was mourned by millions.
But as with many clowns, there was sadness behind the smiles.
The man of a hundred public faces was haunted by private doubts, hung up by tangled personal relationships.
He once said: “I am not essentially a funny man. I come to life when I am doing something that appeals to my sense of humour.”
To those who knew him best, he could also be cruel, demanding and distant. Sellers was born into a theatrical family in 1925 and spent his early years touring Britain’s variety halls with his parents. In his teens he began playing drums and often accompanied his father Bill, a pianist. But it was the Second World War that shaped his life. While in the RAF, he joined Ralph Reader’s Gang Show, adding impersonations of high-ranking officers to his musical abilities.
After being demobbed he landed work on various BBC radio series before joining forces with Spike Milligan, Michael Bentine and Harry Secombe in The Goon Show, which changed the face of British comedy and paved the way for the likes of Beyond The Fringe and Monty Python.
By the mid-1950s, Sellers was also appearing in films, his gift for characterisation shining through in such productions as The Ladykillers, The Naked Truth and The Smallest Show On Earth.
In 1959, he earned his first major part in I’m All Right Jack and altogether made more than 50 films, including What’s New Pussycat?, Being There and Dr Strangelove. There were plenty of duds among these delights, but the uproarious Pink Panther films were successful around the world and showed Sellers at his comic best.
But for all his screen triumphs, happiness eluded him. He changed wives, girlfriends and cars with almost manic regularity in his quest for fulfilment.
As Barry Took once wrote: “The truth is that Sellers’ talent was so huge that it was too big for him to see it. Consequently he must have thought he would only find true happiness with the next woman, the next car or the next role.”
On July 24, it will be 40 years since the performer’s death following a massive coronary at the Dorchester Hotel – he had struggled with heart problems since the mid-1960s.
To mark that sad anniversary, his daughters Sarah and Victoria discuss their often difficult relationship with him in this revealing documentary.
Celebrity fans including Michael Palin and Steve Coogan also describe the impact his work has had on their own careers, while Sellers’ second wife, Britt Ekland, who has never talked about him for any programme or biographer before, offers her insights into his complex personality.
■ Peter Sellers: A State of Comic Ecstasy is on Saturday, BBC2, at 9pm