The role of Inspector Clouseau was originally meant for Peter Ustinov, as a Sûreté detective on the trail of a famous international jewel thief played by David Niven. In its original incarnation, it seems unlikely that The Pink Panther would have been anything more than an enjoyable but forgettable standard light-comedy thriller. When Peter Sellers took over the role at the last minute, it dramatically changed the tone of the first film and paved the way to a series of sequels where the world around Clouseau would also become somewhat eccentric and absurd and the films would become much more broad in their humour.