Book Club: Roger Lewis on Peter Sellers

In The Spectator's Book Club podcast, Sam Leith interviews biographer Roger Lewis about his reissued biography, "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers," celebrating Sellers' centenary. Lewis discusses Sellers' enduring reputation, his genius despite uneven film quality, and the complex relationship between biographer and subject, describing his own evolving feelings towards Sellers from infatuation to disillusionment and eventual understanding. They delve into Sellers' difficult personality, his lack of a personal center, his cruel behavior towards his children, and his relationships, particularly with Spike Milligan and his wives. The conversation also covers Sellers' career inflection points, his materialism, his collaborations with Stanley Kubrick, and the melancholy underlying his comedy, while also touching on the process of writing the biography and the upcoming film adaptation of Lewis's book on Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.