Richard III

Peter Sellers doing his version of Laurence Olivier's version of "Now is the winter of our discontent" through The Beatles' "A hard day's night" version. The TV program was 1964 "Music of Lennon and McCartney".

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• Peter
• Sellers
• Richard
• III
• Shakespeare
• Beatles

[SubRider618]

What an extraordinary performance (short as it is) by an extraordinary talent. Peter Sellers will be remembered, appreciated, and sorely missed by many, many generations to come.

[HCShannon]

I'm taking a Shakespeare in film class, I told my teacher about this and he said that he used to do Olivier as Othello reading the phone book!

[kiya161]

an absoluet genius...sacha baron-chen can only DREAM of being half as good as the great Peter Sellers.

[dropway9]

Well the laughter may be due to the facial expressions and the fact the audience realized they were in on the joke too. He turns an innocent pop ballad into a somewhat lascivious solliquoy by his delivery but also certainly by his facial expressions too! He was acting, and doing a ripping good job.

[DrCHUD666]

Peter Sellers was and for all times pure comic genius.

[SuperNevile]

Yes, and making the lyrics even more suggestive than the fabs intended by the way the words are spokem. Wonderful Shakesperean hyberbole. It's an english thing hence the laughter.

[ProfetaParanoia]

@hugh0221 those are the end of the sentences, so people wait till he finishes to laugh. It's a Beatles song "it's been a hard day's night", and he's saying the lyrics like Olivier doing Richard III. ;)

[hugh0221]

Peter Sellers is a genius, I admire him greatly! But I simply can't get the joke. Is it funny just because he's doing an Olivier impression?

I mean, why are the clearest laughters heard after the words like "all right", "OK" or "feeling you"?

[glorfindello]

When Peter sounds more like Olivier than Olivier you know it's because these words are from the gods!

[SubRider618]

Does anyone recall Steve Allen doing something somewhat similar? He was dressed as if giving a formal lecture, reading from a book on the lectern. His "lecture" was a straight, professor-like, cadenced reading of the lyrics of the then-popular song, "Who put the 'bop' in the 'bop-she-bop-she-bop? Who put the 'rang' in the rang-a-lang-a-ding-dock'?" Hilarious!