Peter Sellers & Irene Handl

One of the few actors who could genuinely command respect and admiration from Peter Sellers, Irene Handl is mainly remembered now for her multitudinous 'mum', 'gran', 'landlady/charlady' and general 'dotty old dear' roles in films and on TV. She and Sellers appeared together in films, on record, on stage and on television. Perhaps the pairing is most well known from the 1959 film I'm All Right Jack, in which they played Mr & Mrs Kite. That same year saw the release of the LP Songs For Swinging Sellers which includes two tracks featuring Handl - The Critics and Shadows On The Grass, which she also wrote. Poignantly the two were reunited in 1979 on the LP Sellers Market, on the track The Whispering Giant and Sellers' death a year later upset Handl terribly - she said she never got over it. Clearly the two had had a unique friendship and understanding of each other that few others could equal. This week we welcome back Donna Rees to discuss the work they did together and Irene Handl in particular. She was a fascinating figure: not getting into acting until relatively late in life; the daughter of well-to-do parents with servants; a woman who never married yet received regular marriage proposals as she travelled the world in her twenties; a published novelist and huge fan of Elvis Presley and owner of many chihuahuas; she quite liked pornography, hated ET and her favourite actress was Yootha Joyce. And she pretty much worked with everyone.