HE was best known for bringing D H Lawrence's Women In Love to the big screen.

But Ken Russell, who died on Sunday aged 84, wasn't aware of the Notts writer before making the film in 1969.

"I hadn't heard of Lawrence, to be frank," he told the Post in 2007, ahead of a visit to Broadway for a screening of the film. "When United Artists asked if I'd like to do the film I read the script and I hated it. It was written by an American and had lost a lot of its Englishness. As soon as I'd read the book I gave them a call and said 'hey, when can we start?'"

Women In Love was notorious for its naked wrestling scene with Oliver Reed and Alan Bates.

"As the moment of truth drew near they both got a bit chicken," he said of his two leading men.

"The both produced doctors' certificates saying 'sorry Ken we can't do it'. Alan had a cold that could develop in to pneumonia and Oliver had sprained his ankle that could develop in to something serious.

"I said 'see you tomorrow morning at 8.30, chaps', hoping for the best. Much to my surprise and delight at 8.30 the next morning the boys turned up, took off their dressing gowns and stood there as naked as the day they were born."

Women In Love earned Russell an Oscar nomination and international recognition as an unconventional filmmaker.

He was born on July 3, 1927, in Southampton.

"My mum was a great film fan," he recalled. "She took me to the movies almost every day."

At the age of ten, he was given a film projector and he would screen movies in the family's garage for friends and neighbours.

"I showed a lot of Charlie Chaplin, Betty Boop and Felix The Cat," he said.

"When the war broke out I was showing feature films but the only ones that were available were German silent films. So while they were dropping bombs on us I was showing their movies. It was a weird situation."

He was sent to Pangbourne Nautical College at the age of 15, but found the discipline irksome. Even so, he entered the Merchant Navy as sixth officer on a cargo ship bound for the Pacific.

After the Second World War, his fascination with the sea ended, and his family assumed he would enter the shoe business, a prospect which horrified him.

Russell tried without success to enter the film business, but in his early 20s he turned his attention to ballet and classical music.

For five years he attended dance school and toured with dance troupes, before turning to fashion photography.

He then landed a job with BBC arts programmes Monitor and Omnibus, where his arts documentaries, often about the lives of composers, won great praise.

Aside from Women In Love, Russell achieved fame behind the camera for The Who's rock opera Tommy, The Boy Friend, starring Twiggy, Lisztomania, the controversial The Devils and Altered States.

In 2007 he appeared in Celebrity Big Brother but lasted just four days, driven out in the wake of a row about contestants having to wait on Jade Goody and her family.

Russell had earlier started in good spirits, performing Singin' In The Rain as he entered the house.

As he left he spoke about the divisiveness created by being in the house, saying: "I don't want to live in a society riddled with evil and hatred."

He told the Post: "The programme fascinates me. You know how the Victorians used to visit places like Bedlam as entertainment? Where you'd pay half a crown and you could watch the mad men?

"Well, I don't have to pay anything and I can still watch the mad men."