Peter Sellers wouldnt be allowed his career today. All those funny radial stereotypes—the caricatured frogs, wops, yids and goodness-gracious-me Pakis—are in clear breach of the codes of political correctness. His lewd disguises and overdone accents belong with black-and-white minstrel shows and clog-dancing—its the comedy of yesteryear. Have you tried listening to The Goon Show lately? It is a reworking of The Gang Show,excruciatingly bad and dated,and full of explosions,gunfire and jokes about Hitler and the War. Nonetheless,Sellers continues to obsess people. Hes already been the subject of biographies galore, including,back in 1994,a 1,200-page magnum opus by myself,which is now being turned into a biopic starring Geoffrey Rush. The appeal lies in the mythic dimensions of Sellersstory. He had everything and it wasnt enough. He was a comedian with a tragic inability to enjoy life. He was world-famous and desperately lonely. At the height of his fame,as Inspector Clouseau.his eccentricity tipped over the edge into genuine insanity. He was a basket case. This is irresistible material. Sellerssubversive and immoderate behavior. puts him in a class of his own. Picture my disappointment with Ed Skiovs tome,therefore. Heres a thick cook that tells us nothing new. For newcomers to Sellers,however,Mr. Strangelove is a perfect digest of the mans life and work, briskly told. Sellers was descended from a family of bare-knuckle East End prize-fighters, although his parents were music hall entertainers. His clinging,whining mother,Peg,was a quick-change artiste and his father, Bill, was a ukulele player and soft-shoe-shuffle merchant. The young Peter was raised in the ghostly,twilight world of shabby theatres and end-of-the-pier revues: dog acts,acrobatic midgets,incompetent conjurors and gypsy violinists. To go from these origins and become as big as The Beatles,as he was in the Sixties,is an amazing feat. Sellers spent the Second World War in the Air Force,impersonating officers and playing the drums to entertain the troops. When he was demobbed he worked in holiday camps and began getting spots on radio,culminating in The Goon Show. He dubbed the voices of Churchill and Humphrey Bogart on film soundtracks, and it was while hanging about the studios that he was offered walk-on roles. His breakthrough came with the part of a teddy boy in The Ladykillers.a film that improves with each viewing. This led to the role of Fred Kite,the shaven-headed,belligerent shop steward in Im All Right. Jack which won him British Academy Best Actor statuette. When Peter Ustinov dropped out of The Pink Panther on a Friday. Sellers flew to the set in Rome on Monday to replace him. The rest is history. Or notoriety. Sellers descent into madness was swift. He got rid of his wife and children and chased after Britt Ekland. whom he pounced on in The Dorchester and married ten days later. He took drugs to enhance his potency and this precipitated a heart attack. Having worked on Dr. Strangelove during the day. each evening he locked himself in the bathroom and threatened to commit suicide. Bryan Forbes and Nanette Newman had to come over and talk to him through the door. He then decided he wanted to marry Nanette. He also wanted to marry Sophia Loren, Princess Margaret and Liza Minnelli. His misbehavior. and unprofessionalism cost film studios millions of dollars. Sets had to be repainted and costumes remade if they were purple or green—colors of which he was morbidly superstitious. He enjoyed messing about during filming and blowing his lines;he pulled guns on people. He walked off Casino Royale and was discovered in Britt Eklands mothers house in Sweden. Meanwhile. Orson Welles and the rest of the cast were in full make-up and on full pay back at Pinewood. waiting for him to reappear. Sellers were happy only in the company of his gadgets,cameras and fast cars,which hed replace or a-bandon with manic frequency. Alone of his weddings.the maids of honor were the brides dogs. He was also selfish in the extreme:when his relationships broke up,hed send his henchmen round to retrieve his gifts. People are still obsessed with Peter Sellers because____.