Unknown Chaplin

Written and produced by the awarding-winning factual team Kevin Brownlow and David Gill and narrated by actor James Mason, Unknown Chaplin is every film enthusiast's dream.

For years, film collectors and historians dreamed of stumbling on a cache of unknown Chaplin footage - his rushes, his out-takes, his abandoned films - but Chaplin himself left strict orders to burn all such material. During the making of their Hollywood series, Lady Chaplin gave Brownlow and Gill the unique privilege of access to her private vaults. They discovered thousands of feet of film that had never been seen in public.

Unknown Chaplin is the direct result. This three-part programme gives an extraordinary insight into many aspects of Chaplin's dazzling career: his early working methods, the making of famous films such as City Lights and Modern Times and the movies he made for fun. They include the first interviews with two of Chaplin's most enigmatic leading ladies and rare footage of Chaplin himself.

Winner of the 1983 Emmy for Outstanding Informational Series, the material shown in Unknown Chaplin represents the cinematic coup of the twentieth century.

First released: Monday 8th May 2006

Extra features

• How Unknown Chaplin Was Made: Kevin Brownlow describes the discoveries that led to the making of the series and the story of its production.
• The Making Of The Count: Out-takes from The Count (1916) with historian Frank Scheide.
• Chaplin Meets Harry Lauder: A short film made to raise money for soldiers and sailors wounded during the Great War.