Things (1973), which chronicled the life of the young Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Taking a full year to complete, the project gave a behind-the-scenes look at the writing and recording of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Besides footage of John's 1973 Hollywood Bowl concert, the film included interviews with John, Taupin, and band members, including Nigel Olsson and Dee Murray, as well as John's mother, Sheila, DJM label chief Dick James, and James's son, Stephen. (Some of the concert footage was later licensed for the Eagle Vision Classic Albums series Goodbye Yellow Brick Road documentary.) During filming, Forbes formed a close friendship with John and Taupin, which led to other collaborations with them, including photography on the Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album sleeves. ITV broadcast the documentary in the UK on 4 December 1973, and it was later briefly issued on VHS. It was shown in the U.S. on ABC. Forbes returned to Hollywood to direct The Stepford Wives (1975), based on Ira Levin's novel of the same name. The thriller about the backlash against the Women's Liberation Movement in the U.S., in which Newman had a supporting role, was to become Forbes's best-known film, partly because of the protests against it. Forbes clashed with screenwriter William Goldman over casting decisions and changes to the film's ending made by Forbes, causing Goldman to drop out of the project (while retaining the screenplay credit). Despite its notoriety, The Stepford Wives received mixed reviews and performed weakly at the box office. His subsequent films as a director were less successful: The Slipper and the Rose (1976), with David Frost as executive producer; International Velvet (1978), intended as a continuation of National Velvet (1944), with Newman in the same role as Elizabeth Taylor in the earlier film; Better Late than Never (1983); and The Naked Face (1984). His final film as a screenwriter was Chaplin in 1992. He served as president of the National Youth Theatre, Writers' Guild of Great Britain and the Beatrix Potter Society. For a time Forbes owned a bookshop in Virginia Water, Surrey. Author Forbes wrote two volumes of autobiography and several successful novels, the last of which, The Soldier's Story, was published in 2012. He was a regular contributor to The Spectator magazine. Awards and honours Forbes's 1960 screenplay, The Angry Silence, won a BAFTA award, and was nominated