Oliver Reed may not have been Britain's biggest film star - for a period
in the early 70s he came within a hairsbreadth of replacing Sean Connery
as James Bond - but he is an august member of that small band of people,
like George Best and Eric Morecambe, who transcended their chosen
medium, became too big for it even, and grew into cultural icons. For
the first time Reed's close family has agreed to collaborate on a
project about the man himself. The result is a fascinating new insight
into a man seen by many as merely a brawling, boozing hellraiser. And
yet he was so much more than this.