Who was Michael Caine’s first love interest? Did Dudley Moore display any star quality with his Dagenham school friends?

The eight-part series, Legends, which is repeated in Carlton’s London region but being broadcast for the first time in the Central and West Country regions, invites viewers to meet the people of the past for some of the biggest names in showbiz.

The show contains interviews with childhood sweethearts, ex-wives, co-stars and directors – some of whom have never before spoken on television. Viewers will also see exclusive long-lost family photographs and home movie footage.

The series also celebrates the lives and careers of other legends Dirk Bogarde, Vivien Leigh, Kenneth Williams, Sir Norman Wisdom, Frankie Howerd and Sir John Mills.

The programmes uncover the people and evocative places significant to the lives of each celebrity – revealing hidden stories and new insights into the people on the screen from the people behind the scenes.

The series kicks off with Dudley Moore. The musician, actor and comedian has been entertaining for more than 40 years. Not only is he one of Britain’s most popular entertainers, he’s also a major Hollywood star. However, his life began somewhere much more humble. He was born on 19 April, 1935, and lived his childhood years on the Beacontree council estate in Dagenham, Essex.

Those who share their thoughts about Dudley’s life and talent include childhood friends, his sister Barbara Stevens, ex-wife Brogan Lane, Beyond the Fringe’s Jonathan Miller, 10 director Blake Edwards, Not Only … But Also director Joe McGrath, and biographer Barbra Paskin.

Dudley was born with a club foot and had many corrective operations on it during his childhood, having to wear callipers on his legs until the age of 11. He came from a musical family and showed talent at the piano from an early age.

Dudley also played the organ at his local church, St Thomas’s. He was clearly talented and his music teacher suggested that he try for an organ scholarship to Oxford. In 1954, Dudley left Dagenham to become the organ scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford. Here he joined a jazz band led by John Bassett, who says: “I’ve always maintained that jazz totally changed Dud’s life … suddenly I think he came alive.???

When Dudley left university he became a professional musician, playing with his jazz trio in London’s nightclubs. In 1960, Dudley’s friend John Bassett was recruiting four Oxford and Cambridge graduates to do a comedy revue show for the Edinburgh Festival. The show was called Beyond the Fringe.

With Dudley, Jonathan Miller, Alan Bennett and Peter Cook, the show was so successful it came to London in 1961, where it played at the Fortune Theatre for more than a year.

Says theatre historian Sheridan Morley: “For the first time, this was really intelligent people making fun of an appalling England. Up until then, people could say, ‘those who make jokes about the Establishment are just cockney comics and pub people, and we haven’t got to take it seriously’.

“But when you have four bright young graduates tearing the country apart, people had to listen – and they couldn’t believe it. And it was revolution.???

Says John Bassett of Dudley’s personal life at this time: “Whenever Dudley’s shirt got dirty he didn’t wash it. So he’d go down to Marks and Spencer and buy another shirt, and eventually layer after layer after layer after layer of shirts just built up … and eventually they just filled the room.

“A girlfriend at the time took them down to the laundry – and there were eight mini-car loads of shirts!???

In 1962, Beyond the Fringe went to Broadway, where even President Kennedy saw the show. By 1964 the cast left America to return home. Dudley knew a young television director called Joe McGrath, who’d been asked to come up with a new show for the BBC.

Dudley and Peter Cook reunited for Not Only … But Also, which was a huge success. They then made five films together, but none of them were box office hits. Dudley tried to put an end to his womanising when he married Suzy Kendal in 1968. But it didn’t last. He didn’t want to settle down, and Suzy divorced him after only four years. In 1972, Dudley and Peter went back to the stage to do a new show – Behind the Fridge.

By the mid-1970s Dudley married his second wife – American actress Tuesday Weld. He moved to Los Angeles to be with her and pursue a solo film career. Like many celebrities at the time, Dudley joined a counselling group and became friends with the director of the Pink Panther films – Blake Edwards.

Blake was about to start shooting his latest film when the main actor dropped out. “I got to know Dudley very quickly. I think he fascinated everybody. We spent more time going to Dudley than we did going to the group.???

Blake decided to cast Dudley in the 1979 film, 10, with Bo Derek. It was a hit and made him a Hollywood star. Says biographer Barbra Paskin: “10 was a wonderful time for him. He was Hollywood’s latest import, they loved him here, they’d never seen anyone like him. He was half the size of any usual movie star. Your regular movie star didn’t look like Dudley Moore – cuddly and short.???

Next came the film, Arthur. It was a huge box office hit and Dudley received an Academy Award nomination for best actor. On his next film he met his wife Brogan Lane. He couldn’t stay faithful, and his third marriage ended in divorce. In 1994, Dudley married fourth wife Nicole Rothschild.

The next year he was sacked from a film for not being able to learn his lines. Something seemed wrong. Says Barbra Paskin: “His speech and his balance began to be affected, and eventually of course the doctors diagnosed progressive supra-nuclear palsy, which is a cousin of Parkinson’s, for which there is no cure.???

Divorced from his fourth wife, Dudley is now living with friends in New Jersey and undergoing medical treatment. He is too ill to do television interviews.

Legends is a Carlton production. The series editor is Trevor Hyett. The producer/ director is Carolyn Payne. The executive producer is Emma Barker.

Legends airs Friday, April 5 at 13:40 on Carlton's London, Central, Westcountry and HTV Wales regions.