Peter Sallis - Autobiography

Autobiography

In 2006, Sallis published a well-received autobiography entitled, with typical self-deprecation, Fading Into the Limelight. Roger Lewis in The Mail on Sunday stated "Though Sallis is seemingly submissive, he has a sly wit and sharp intelligence that make this book a total delight."

Sallis starred with Orson Welles in Welles' stage play, Moby Dick—Rehearsed and tells of a later meeting with him where he received a mysterious telephone call summoning him to the deserted and spooky Gare d'Orsay in Paris where Welles announced he wanted him to dub Hungarian bit-players in his cinema adaptation of Kafka's The Trial. As Sallis says "the episode was Kafka-esque, to coin a phrase."

Despite his nearly 37 years in Last Of The Summer Wine, this is far from the main focus of the book, in which Sallis also recounts the early era of his relationship with Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park when it took six years for A Grand Day Out to be completed. He says that his work as Wallace has "raised his standing a few notches in the public eye".