Marcel Marceau: The mime genius and the hidden manuscript

If you picture a mime in your head, it's likely to be a person with a painted white face with cartoonish features, perhaps wearing a striped black and white t-shirt. You're probably conjuring up the image of the French mime artist, Marcel Marceau. Marcel Marceau is the grandee of mime artistry, perhaps the most famous mime in history and a global icon.

But what is less known, is the story of the secret manuscript that he left for his daughters on his deathbed. It was filled with passages about his emotional inner life when he was in the French Resistance during World War Two, drawing on mime techniques to help smuggle Jewish children out of Nazi-occupied France across the Swiss border to safety.

After the war, Marcel's mime career took off and he was celebrated by Hollywood royalty and world leaders alike. In his 50s he met his third wife and they brought up their two daughters, Aurelia and Camille, in a world filled with art, theatre and... silence. Marcel rarely spoke about his wartime experiences, yet throughout his life he had been writing down his most intimate thoughts and recollections. As he began to lose his memory, he handed over this manuscript to Aurelia and Camille, urging them to read it, ready to break his silence at last and reveal the man behind the make up.

Aurelia and Camille Marceau published Marcel Marceau's manuscript, Histoire de ma vie de 1923 jusqu'en 1952 (Story of my life from 1923 to 1952) on the centenary of his birth.

Presenter: Jo Fidgen

Producer: Sarah Kendal

Voice overs: Florence de Schlichting and Genevieve Sagno

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(Photo: Marcel Marceau. Credit: Getty)