Many film-makers would surely despair if they worked for a year on a documentary only to see its subject crumble before their eyes.

Stephen Matthews could have been forgiven for weeping tears as bitter and salty as the sea which claimed parts of the collapsed West Pier, Brighton.

He had been putting the finishing touches to a film about the landmark before its fall.

He had also recorded the reminiscences of various characters, including the world's oldest working escapologist and the daughter of a former general manager of the pier.

Now Mr Matthews, 32, will have to drastically re-edit the film to take account of the latest dramatic episode in the pier's life.

He said: "We will have to take some new footage to put at the start and end of the film.

"We will probably use what we have already in flashback form."

Mr Matthews, who runs the firm Cheeky Films in Selborne Road, Hove, started working on the documentary in March.

Ron Cunningham, also known as The Great Omani, performed his daredevil tricks on the pier in the Sixties and Seventies.

For the documentary, the 87-year-old was filmed rolling bare-chested on a pile of broken glass and smashing a bottle over his throat.

April Henebury, whose father was general manager early last century, remembered walking on the pier in the "golden age" of the Twenties and Thirties.

Returning to the pier later in life, she thought: "This is not the same. It will never be the same but you can't turn the clock back."

Other interviewees included former deckhand Arthur Thickett, West Pier Trust general manager Rachel Clark and Gary Webb, who performed in the pier's music hall show in the Sixties.

Mr Matthews said: "I was very aware while filming last summer the pier was rotting away.

"Last July you could not see through the concert hall but by September you could.

"The pier is still a remarkable, beautiful structure. There is a ghostly quality about it."

There could be one advantage to the pier's recent traumas.

Mr Matthews said: "Three or four months ago when we were pitching the film to broadcasters, they tended to be very sniffy about it.

"No one thought there would be an audience. But the reaction to the collapse has shown there is a huge interest throughout the country, not just Brighton.

"Events have proved us right."

He hopes to finish the film next month and resume pitching it to broadcasting companies.