Hollywood actor Tom Hiddleston has described the works of directing
greats like Alfred Hitchcock and Sir David Lean as part of Britain’s
“national heritage” at an event where the Prince of Wales revealed his
own cinematic tastes.

Hiddleston, the star of The Night Manager, made his comments during a
British Film Institute (BFI) event marking the 40th anniversary of
Charles’s patronage of the organisation.

Charles was joined at the celebration by actor David Oyelowo, famed
for his role as Dr Martin Luther King in Selma, who spoke out in favour
of the BFI’s work nurturing some of the next generation of filmmakers
under its academy scheme.

After being shown some of the BFI’s Peter Sellers collection
featuring photographs from the Pink Panther movies, the heir to the
throne confessed: “I have to say whenever I put one of these on it
always raises my spirits.”

Hiddleston chatted to Charles and said the prince told him he had enjoyed the BBC drama The Night Manager “very much”.

The star, famed for his role as Loki in the Marvel superhero films,
added: “The reason I believe in the BFI is because I believe in film as
an art form.

“It began as a physical art form, it’s a chemical process, it’s capturing life with light.”

The BFI has an important collection of Victorian films it has
restored and digitised and will make available free online next year,
and is home to archives of films, movie scripts, posters and other
material central to the history of British cinema.

Hiddleston added: “The prints of early film work that have enabled
the art form to become what it’s become, light, sound, movement, are
preserved by the BFI and without it we would lose it.

“So the silent Hitchcocks, the prints of Lawrence of Arabia, Brief
Encounter (by) David Lean, all British film is standing on the shoulders
of those titans so the preservation of that material is as important as
preserving the work of the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate, it’s
part of our national heritage.”

During the visit Charles indulged his passion for the Pink Panther films
starring Peter Sellers who was a member of the royal’s beloved Goons.

He was shown Sellers’ script from the Pink Panther Strikes Again with
handwritten notes by the comic actor, and promotional material from the
movies like photographs and lobby posters.

Charles told Nathalie Morris, who oversees the BFI’s collection of
filmmaker’s material, that he had been on the set of one of the Pink
Panther films and how the actors had to do “18 takes” as the crew broke
down in “hysterics” they “all just dissolved into hysteria”.

The prince also met young filmmakers who have trained with the BFI
Academy which has sent aspiring camera operators and directors on
apprenticeships with Lucasfilm which makes the latest instalments of the
Star Wars movies.

After meeting Charles at the reception, Oyelowo said about the help
given to young people trying to break into the film industry: “You need
support, you need someone to say ‘you’re good enough’, you need someone
to say ‘go for it’ and you need someone to actually support you to do it
and those are all things I think the BFI recognise and are doing.”

Charles reveals fondness for Pink Panther movies at film event