TWO ‘lost’ films starring actor Peter Sellers will be shown for the first time in nearly 50 years at next year’s Southend Film Festival after being discovered by a local man.

The findings of the films Dearth of a Salesman and Insomnia is Good For You, have been described as the “Dead Sea Scrolls of the film world.”

Robert Farrow, from Thorpe Bay, salvaged the films from a skip outside a film company’s office in 1996 when it was being cleared.

He took what he thought was 21 empty film cans home, thinking they would be good for storing his super eight collection.

Mr Farrow said: “I took them home, put them in a cupboard and pretty much forgot about them.

“During a recent clear out I found them again and decided to see what the tins contained - it was then I realised they were two Sellers films including the negatives, titles, show prints, outtakes and the master print.

The films were made in 1957 by the now defunct Park Lane Films.

The thirty minute shorts were made by Sellers as he tried to make his name as an actor.

Paul Cotgrove from The White Bus, who organises the film festival, said the call from Mr Farrow was out of the blue.

He said: “Robert said he thought he had some Peter Sellers films and asked if I’d like to show them as part of next year’s Film Festival.

“Of course I was interested straight away, but when I did some research I was gobsmacked to see that the two films are widely regarded by film historians as being lost Peter Sellers movies.

“Robert’s find is the Dead Sea Scrolls of the Film World.”

Mr Cotgrove now intends to have the films digitally restored and present them on the opening night of film festival on May 1.