Elvis By The Presleys (ITV1): MOST celebrity biographies on the TV are unofficial, comprising titbits and tittle-tattle gleaned from so-called friends with axes to grind with the subject, and unsubstantiated stories from cuttings libraries. They're little more than gossip.

As the title suggests, Elvis By The Presleys came from the mouths and the home movie collection of the King's nearest and dearest. Or as Priscilla Beaulieu Presley put it: "My family shares the Elvis we knew and loved - the very different side of a very public man".

I'm uncertain we learnt anything we didn't know, or suspect, about him, although it was shocking to be reminded that he was only 42 when he died.

All the familiar points in his life were touched upon - military service, the effect of his mother's death, marriage, fatherhood, his dreadful movies, his comeback and his last, bloated years.

What made the difference were the home movies and photographs, and hearing the story of Elvis and Priscilla's romance from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

Her parents, Paul and Ann Beaulieu, spoke of their concern when Elvis called her in Germany and asked her to join him back in America once he was out of the army. As he was 24 and she was 14 when they first met, you can understand their concern.

"He was breathtaking, much more handsome in life than on the screen," enthused Priscilla, without exploring the implications, legal or otherwise, of the age gap.

When she moved to Memphis, she had no idea of the world she was entering. Elvis wanted his woman to be stunning and quiet. She was expected to support him and care for him.

She joined his family, of both blood relatives and the guys with whom he hung out. The press dubbed them the Memphis Mafia. "We wore mohair suits, we had great looking girls, we packed guns," recalled best friend Jerry Schilling.

What else did we learn? Well, Elvis loved Christmas and always hoped it would snow. He wanted another child. He and Priscilla had already chosen a name. He played practical jokes. He was sentimental. Daughter Lisa Marie said he was "protective, adoring, watchful, I know I was loved".

The marriage didn't last because, as Priscilla pointed out, Elvis lived "a bachelor's life". She left him. This shocked Elvis, who believed a man could go with other women without any emotional attachment and always go back home afterwards as if nothing had happened.

Priscilla says the decision to leave him was very painful. "The hardest thing in your life is if you love someone and have to leave them. But I would not have had a life if I didn't take that step," she explained.

They left court after the divorce hearing hand in hand, which isn't something you expect of couples splitting up.

Priscilla still loves him today. She would, she said, defend him and his legacy until she died - "because he deserved it".

Published: 19/05/2005