Peter Sellers

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Peter Sellers was a 20th century radio and film actor and comedian. The Eighth Doctor regarded him as a personal friend.

When he was only 2 weeks old, Sellers made his performance debut at the Kings Theatre in Southsea. (AUDIO: Divine Intervention)

In 1957, Sellers was set to appear in a sequel to the 1955 classic The Ladykillers, which was to be produced by Ealing Studios and directed by Alexander Mackendrick. However, the film's location filming at the London mansion Wester Drumlins was beset with issues, including the disappearances of multiple location managers and two crewmembers being severely injured by a falling lighting rig. Mackendrick and another castmember, Alec Guinness, were approached by a soft-spoken man who urged them to abandon the project or film elsewhere, warning of "killer statues". The warning terrified Mackendrick, and in conjunction with spooked insurance companies pulling their support, the film was scrapped. Sellers went on to make the little-remembered Up the Creek. (PROSE: The Very Real Mystery of Wester Drumlins)

According to the Doctor, Sellers nearly turned down his role in The Pink Panther, but the Doctor pleaded with him, saying, "If it's good enough for Ustinov, it's good enough for you." (AUDIO: Divine Intervention)

In 1968, he appeared on The Tee Vee Show to discuss his new film with the show's host, Timothy Vee. (AUDIO: The Age of Revolution)

In 1974, Sellers was interviewed on Parkinson and recalled his time working on the Ladykillers sequel. He first publicly revealed the encounter with the soft-spoken man, calling his warning "mumbo jumbo". He stated that the cancellation of the project still rankled because Up the Creek was, in his view, unremembered. (PROSE: The Very Real Mystery of Wester Drumlins)

Behind the scenes

William Hartnell together with Sellers in the 1959 film The Mouse That Roared.

The film that Sellers was to promote on Timothy Vee's show was not identified by name. In real life, he appeared in two films in 1968, The Party and I Love You, Alice B. Toklas, though the film referenced in The Age of Revolution may also have been a wholly fictional one or another of Sellers' films released in a different year in the Doctor Who universe than in reality.

William Hartnell, who played the First Doctor, starred alongside Sellers in the 1959 film The Mouse That Roared, and later again in the 1963 film Heavens Above!

Matt Smith said in an interview that he always thought Peter Sellers would have made a good Doctor.