Arena: The Peter Sellers Story
- TV documentary
- BBC Two
- 1995 - 2002
- 3 episodes
A three-part film portrait of one of the world's great comic actors, incorporating home movies, film clips and interviews. Features Ray Marks, Dick Ray, Bryan Forbes, David Lodge, Graham Stark and more.
Press clippings
Most home movies are excruciatingly dull, but Sellers' aren't, partly because the subject himself was such an enigmatic figure (and it's always interesting to watch an enigma kicking off its shoes and arsing about), and partly because the surrounding acquaintances he shot are more interesting than yer average person's Uncle David.
Charlie Brooker, The Guardian, 24th August 2002All hail to the king of comedy
During my brief stint at TV reviewing, few programmes have provoked a sharp intake of breath, but Sellers' left me pretty well hyperventilating. Dazzlingly directed by Peter Lydon, it worked superbly on many levels - biographical, historical, psychological.
Victor Lewis-Smith, Evening Standard, 20th February 1995The footage is less interesting than why Sellers' felt compelled to film everything. Perhaps as Harry Secombe suggested, he always had to hide behind something, a voice, a character, a camera. In some sense, he wasn't there at all.
Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian, 13th February 1995