Audiences all over west London have been captivated this week as they found out about the man who helped get Nelson Mandela freed and end Apartheid - but kept out of the limelight for 26 years.

Jean-Yves Ollivier is the star of new documentary Plot for Peace, released on film today (March 14), which reveals for the first time the involvement the French, Algerian-born commodity trader had in getting Mandela freed from Robben Island which then helped end Apartheid in South Africa.

For a quarter of a century Mr Ollivier, who was known simply as Monsieur Jacques, has lived with the knowledge he was responsible for one of the most historic break-throughs in modern African history, but being the humble man he is he never wanted to tell his story publicly.

It took Mandy Jacobson, documentary maker and executive producer of the African Oral History Archive, to persuade him to tell his remarkable story after uncovering the truth while talking to heads of state who were around when Apartheid was strangling South Africa.

In the 1980s Mr Ollivier used business connections to negotiate with African and Western political leaders, acting as a parallel diplomat as he describes it, which eventually led to prisoner exchanges and then the late Mandela’s release from prison.

The 70-year-old cigar smoker said: “I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and felt I could do something, you just do what you have to do. There’s always this tendency to believe that people trying to do something good have to have ulterior motives but I just happened to be at a certain place where I felt I could do something.

“I think maybe because I was a businessman and I had some skill with negotiations, leaders listened to me more, they knew I didn’t have my own ideology and I was known for being able to trust.”

The French businessman has only now told his story after a quarter of a century

Mandela did not know about Monsieur Jacques’ involvement in his release until afterwards and when they eventually met, the Frenchman said he was in awe of him as everyone was but he forgot his camera so could not take a picture with the great Madiba.

“I’d forgotten my camera and when Mandela asked me if I wanted a picture with him I couldn’t admit I’d just left it at home so I told him I would hold the moment in my heart. But then every time I met him after that I couldn’t just ask for a photo so there are no pictures of just the two of us together.

“He truly made everyone who met him feel like he was at your level and was always so interested in what you were doing. I was so sad when he died but he was old and although his full dream for South Africa has not been recognised yet I’m sure his legacy will live on. It took 40 years from when Martin Luther King died to having a black president.”

Ms Jacobson spent months persuading the humble man to tell his story to the world but finally managed to convince him with the knowledge that it was being made through the African Oral History Archive. “It took a long time but eventually he agreed when he realised I wasn’t going to sensationalise his story,” she said.

Carlos Agulló helped direct and also edit the film and has managed to get a good balance between thriller and documentary in the film. He said: “Being able to tell the story from the perspective of one man made it very easy to make. I work in fiction films normally so this was very different but it was a great project to work on.”

Pre-screenings were held at Riverside Studios and Lycees Francais in South Kensington this week. The film was released in cinemas today and on DVD next Friday (March 21).