In this documentary from 1987, Simon Callow pays tribute to a great screen actor he saw as a child. It was Charles Laughton's unsurpassed performance as "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" that decided the young Simon to become an actor himself. This tribute traces Laughton's life from his birth in Scarborough, through his London stage successes, to screen immortality in such 1930's films as "The Private Life of Henry VIII", "Mutiny on the Bounty", "Rembrandt" and many others, as well as those he made towards the end of his life, including "Witness for the Prosecution", "Spartacus" and "Advise and Consent." The programme includes interviews with Rex Harrison, Robert Mitchum and Peter Ustinov, as well as other friends and colleagues of Laughton. Simon Callow is also a director and author and his books include "Charles Laughton - A Difficult Actor" along with several volumes devoted to Orson Welles. His Laughton tribute documentary is uploaded here with all due acknowledgements to Channel 4 and Yorkshire Television.
Two years after making this Laughton TV tribute, Simon Callow turned his attention to other great actors from the English stage, including Ralph Richardson, Sybil Thorndike, Albert Finney, John Gielgud, Noel Coward, Edith Evans, Michael Redgrave, Richard Burton, Laurence Olivier, Vanessa Redgrave and Maggie Smith. Here is the link to another fascinating Callow programme ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0dIF4nVJVU&t=171s