...after they were unearthed in a skip

Two lost Peter Sellers films are to be screened for the first time in more than 50 years – after being unearthed in a skip.

The star made the 30-minute films Dearth Of A Salesman and Insomnia is Good For You in 1957 by the now defunct Park Lane Films.

They were salvaged from a skip when the company’s office was being cleared out. But Robert Farrow, the building manager who rescued them, ‘put them in a cupboard and pretty much forgot about them’.

He rediscovered them during a recent clearout, and called organisers of the Southend Film Festival. Festival director Paul Cotgrove said:’Robert’s find is the Dead Sea Scrolls of the Film World.’

He will now have the films digitally restored, for screening on his festival’s opening night on May 1.

Dimitris Verionis from The Peter Sellers Appreciation Society told the BBC that the discovery was ‘very exciting’ and helped to ‘complete the cannon of his legacy’.

They were spoof government information films, made as showreels as Sellers made the transition from Goon Show radio star to screen actors. He plated several parts in the movies.

Coincidentally, Dearth Of A Salesman was also the title of one of the episodes in Steve Coogan’s 2005 series Coogan’s Run.

Published: 11 Dec 2013