Charlie Chaplin was at one time the most famous person in the world. His creation - the little tramp - was a universal figure adored by millions across the globe.

He took crude, knockabout, slapstick comedy and turned it into an art form with films that have stood the test of time.

Terry Jones, comedian, writer, director, best known for his work with Monty Python and long-time fan of silent comedies, offers a personal re-appraisal of the man who changed the face of film comedy.

Chaplin endured a childhood in London of almost unbelievable misery. His mother was a singer and part-time prostitute, prone to bouts of insanity. His father left the family after a year and drank himself to death.

Before the age of 10 Charlie had endured poor-school, the workhouse and a succession of cramped, squalid digs he shared with his mother when she was allowed out of the asylum. At times he had to steal food from market stalls to survive.

Terry traces Chaplin's incredible journey from abject poverty in South London to being one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood and running his own studio.

Showing clips that span his film career, Terry tries to get to the bottom of what made Charlie so special as an artist.

With access to a wealth of home movie material, Terry Jones also looks at the troubled private life of the man: his loves, his politics, his obsessions.

He talks to Chaplin family members including his son Michael, who sheds light on his father's gypsy origins, biographer David Robinson and aficionado Kate Guyonvarch from the Chaplin Office in his quest to get inside the skin of one of the true giants of film and comedy.