With unseen material from Hancock, Williams and Sellers

Sky Arts has commissioned new documentaries on Tony Hancock, Peter Sellers and Kenneth Williams featuring previously unseen diary entries, letters and photographs, Chortle can reveal.

The films are being made by critic and filmmaker Victor Lewis-Smith, following the Undiscovered Peter Cook documentary he made for BBC Four in 2016.

Lewis-Smith says all three will air at Christmas and that Sky commissioned the Hancock and Williams documentaries after seeing the completed Sellers film.

He has posted an appeal for help, tweeting 'any hitherto undiscovered stories/ photo's/ home movies etc. about Williams or Hancock most welcome (although we've already found a lot of amazing things...)'.

A Sky Arts publicist told Chortle: 'We can confirm that there are three episodes of The Undiscovered series in production at the moment for Sky Arts, focusing on the lives of Kenneth Williams, Peter Sellers and Tony Hancock.

'Each episode will delve into the extraordinary lives and work of these three men, with access to never-before-seen private photographs, diaries, letters as well as interviews with friends and family members. The transmission dates for each episode are still to be confirmed however.'

Hancock took his own life in Australia 50 years ago this month; Williams died in London 30 years ago this year from an overdose of barbiturates’; and Sellers died 38 years ago after suffering from a heart attack at the Dorchester hotel. All three suffered mental health issues.

The Undiscovered Peter Cook featured hitherto unknown comedy sketches and long-lost footage of him performing with Sellers, Dudley Moore and David Attenborough, as well as The Dead Sea Tapes, an LP recorded by Cook and Moore in 1963, but never released due to concerns about blasphemy law.

It was compiled after Cook’s widow Lin gave Lewis-Smith and a BBC crew unprecedented access to her husband’s private recordings, diaries, letters and photographs. She died two weeks after the film aired.

- by Jay Richardson

Published: 8 Jun 2018