"Massive treasure trove"

Sellers obsessively shot the film throughout his career until the late seventies... we came across fifteen hours of material, it was absolutely pristine clean, he cut it all himself in a post-production facility in a loft on professional editing equipment.

He'd show it once to friends and family and then it would go back in the can and he'd do another one. Sellers never felt he was in control of his life. he loved gadgets and was a professional photographer doing assignments for Vogue.

He had an obsessive sense of fun, his capacity to inhabit another character was so utterly extraordinary. This footage is so intimate and so personal it gives you a visual account of how he changes.

Producer Anthony Wall was involved with making a series of three Arena documentaries in 1995.

He was asked to make a 90 minute version, but he decided that rather than just cut them down he would do something different, and use the original interviews, but with only pictures shot by Sellers or under his direction.

'Arena' features Sellers' home movies

The material was shot between 1948 and 1976 and represents an unbroken record of the private life of Sellers.

It's a unique resource, because it is such a long period and good quality - mostly shot on professional format 16mm, and edited by Sellers in a massive loft.

He would have a screening at the time he edited it - but much of it was never looked at again and is in good condition.

Sellers also asked anybody else filming him to give him a copy of their footage. This went way beyond a hobby, and involved a great deal of care in setting up the shots.

The Arena programme is told from his own point of view - the only bits he didn't shoot are three film clips and one from a documentary made about him.

Sellers interviewed fellow Goon Spike Milligan

Producer Anthony Wall is also interested in the spiral Sellers' life went into, the strange things he did, like walking out on the shooting of Casino Royale.

And there is the weird relationship with his mother, and a remark he made about having lost his relatives when his mother died - even though he had children living.

The documentary includes shots of those ho worked for him - his chauffeur and cook; later holidays in the US, on yachts, at Disneyland. Britt Eckland to whom Sellers was married for five years also gives a long interview.

Wall admits the Arena film was something of an experiment and he was trying to do something different. It's success lies in the fact that it draws you in and gives a rare insight into what Sellers was really like.