Betjeman's wife Penelope became a Roman Catholic in 1948. The couple drifted apart and in 1951 he met Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, with whom he developed an immediate and lifelong friendship. By 1948 Betjeman had published more than a dozen books. Five of these were verse collections, including one in the USA. Sales of his "Collected Poems" in 1958 reached 100,000. The popularity of the book prompted Ken Russell to make a film about him, "John Betjeman: A Poet in London" (1959). Filmed in 35 mm and running 11 minutes and 35 seconds, it was first shown on the BBC's "Monitor". In 1953 his address was the Old Rectory, Farnborough, Wantage, Berkshire.