'Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll', the new film about the life of the late Ian Dury, was premiered at a special screening at Islington's Screen On The Green cinema on Wednesday night.

The film stars Andy Serkis (best known to most of the world as Gollum), who told reporters at last night's event about the film making process, and how Dury's family had helped make his job easier. He is quoted as saying: "It wasn't daunting because we had so much help from Ian's family, all the time we had them at our shoulder and they really helped to inform the whole process really. But I've always felt very close to Ian's take on things and the way he thinks about the world, so I suppose I felt quite in tune with it".

He admitted, however, that at times it felt intimidating to have Dury's widow Sophie, son Baxter, and members of the musician's band The Blockheads on set. He recalled: "I remember once when we were shooting at Vauxhall Palace, we were shooting the live concert bit and that was quite nerve wracking because Sophie came up and adjusted my scarf. Ian used to tie his scarf in a very particular way and Sophie came up and adjusted my scarf just as I was about to do the opening number. That was particularly nerve wracking because it suddenly brought sharp relief that they were there watching".

Serkis added that he once met Dury, and found him to be somewhat "obnoxious", but went on: "The beauty of Ian as a character is that he's a million different things to different people and that was brought out by talking to his family, because he could be very sweet and gentle and very loving and compassionate and then he'd flip like a coin and be very visceral and nasty. But that came from being a very creative, driven man who got beaten around and loves to demonstrate and feel all those things. And yes, when I met him he wasn't particularly nice".

Coldplay's Chris Martin was amongst those attending the screening of the film, which also stars Ray Winstone and Mackenzie Crook. The film comes out on Friday.