PETER COOK
1937 – 1995
Peter Edward Cook was an English comedian, actor, satirist, playwright, screenwriter and proprietor of a satirical magazine often described by his peers as a ‘comic genius’. He was the leading figure of the British satire boom of the 1960s, and a major force in establishing a new comedy era that emerged in the United Kingdom at that time.
Born in Torquay, Devon, Peter spent much of his childhood with his grandparents. His father was a Colonial Civil Servant resulting in him (accompanied by Peter’s mother) working and living abroad in Gibraltar and Nigeria. Peter was educated at St. Peter’s College, Radley before moving on to Pembroke College, Cambridge University where he read French and German and was destined for a job with the Foreign Office. Despite claiming he didn’t work hard at school, he won three scholarships whilst at Radley – The Birt Speech Prize, The Medrington Trophy and Bryans German Prize. At Pembroke he joined the Cambridge Footlights, and later became president of the Footlights Club in 1960.
As a student Peter created one of his early comic creations, E. L. Wisty, the inspiration taken from a table butler at Radley and he wrote his most celebrated sketch about a one-legged man auditioning for the role of Tarzan, ‘One Leg Too Few’. He wrote sketches for the revues ‘Pieces of Eight’ and ‘One Over the Eight’ which were performed by Kenneth Williams in London’s West End.
During his time at Cambridge, he formed an unlikely partnership with a highly talented young man; an accomplished musician, Dudley Moore, who had earned a scholarship to study music at Magdalen College at Oxford University.
In 1960 Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, along with Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett (a newly formed and talented quartet of Oxbridge graduates), wrote and starred in the uniquely memorable satirical revue “Beyond the Fringe”, which following its debut at the Edinburgh Festival in August of 1960 went on to collect rave reviews in London’s West End, opening at the Fortune Theatre in May 1961 and on Broadway at the John Globe Theatre from October 1962. The cast won a Special Tony Award in 1963 ‘for their brilliance which has shattered all old concepts of comedy’. Within the audience in the UK was the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, and on Broadway, President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jackie Kennedy. “Beyond the Fringe” was filmed and broadcast on BBC2 in December 1964.
During this period Peter also founded and opened the Establishment Club; London’s first satirical nightclub, in Greek Street, Soho – a members only club which gave budding comedians and satirists a platform to perform new material. Amongst those that performed were America’s Lenny Bruce, John Bird, John Fortune, Eleanor Bron, Frankie Howerd and Barry Humphries with jazz performed by the Dudley Moore Trio. A second club was opened in New York in 1963 but sadly both closed the following year.
In 1962 Peter bought the controlling interest in Private Eye – the British fortnightly satirical and current affairs magazine. With a blend of humour, social and political observations and investigative journalism the magazine has built its reputation for breaking stories that other papers dare not print beginning with the inside story of the Profumo scandal in 1963. As well as being the majority shareholder, Peter took an active role in the magazine with ideas and regular contributions including ‘Mrs Wilson’s Diary’, the imaginary diary of Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s wife Mary, and the inclusion of satirical speech bubbles to photographs of public figures which remain the brand characteristic of the magazine’s front cover today. Private Eye proved to be the one constant during Peter’s career, and it remains in strong circulation with Ian Hislop as Editor at the helm.
Peter’s first notable television appearances were as a regular on Granada Television’s current affairs programme “On the Braben Beat” where he featured his monotonal character E. L. Wisty, but with an impressive new comedy partnership now formed, Peter Cook & Dudley Moore went on to record three series and a Christmas Special of ‘Not Only …. But Also …’ for the BBC between 1965 and 1970 introducing the hilarious Dagenham Dialogues with cloth capped duo Pete and Dud and featuring such memorable sketches as ‘The Art Gallery’, ‘Superthunderstingcar’ (a parody of ‘Thunderbirds’), ‘Bo Dudley’, ‘The Leaping Nuns of the Order of St Beryl’ and ‘Emma Bargo’ (the Greta Garbo spoof). In 1971 they recorded two 30-minute specials for ABC in Australia retitled “Pete and Dud Downunder”. In 1966 Peter and Dudley were awarded a BAFTA Award in the category of Best Light Entertainment and a WGGB Award for Best British Light Entertainment Series/Serial Script in 1967. In 1968, between series of ‘Not Only … But Also …’ they briefly switched to ITV for three Specials entitled “Goodbye Again”.
Following their television success, the duo appeared together in numerous films including “The Wrong Box” (1966), “Bedazzled” (1967) produced and directed by Stanley Donen for 20th Century Fox which saw Peter playing ‘George Spigott’ (The Devil) as well as writing the screenplay, and “The Hound of the Baskervilles” (1977).
Independently Peter starred in “The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer” again written by Peter along with co-writers including, Monty Python star’s, Graham Chapman and John Cleese and embarked on his own chat show “Where Do I Sit?” for BBC2, which sadly it wasn’t well received by the critics.
Returning to the stage, Peter and Dudley went on to tour together with “Behind the Fridge” (a stage show based on sketches from ‘Not Only … But Also …’ and ‘Goodbye Again’) in Australia in 1972 before returning to the UK with the show at the Cambridge Theatre, London. The following year it transferred to Boston and New York before undertaking a tour of the US under the title “Good Evening” . In 1975 they received a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Work Recording. “Behind the Fridge’ was filmed and broadcast on BBC2 in 1974.
It was during the tours of the US that Peter & Dudley made the notoriously obscene and controversial ‘Derek & Clive’ recordings. These were later released as long-playing records and three albums were released, “Derek & Clive Live” (Island Records), “Derek & Clive Come Again” and “Ad Nauseum” (Virgin Records), the latter being accompanied by a film Derek & Clive Get the Horn released by Polygram (1979).
Together Cook and Moore returned to television projects continuing to the late 1970s, including co-presenting “Saturday Night Live” in the United States in 1976 but following the ‘Good Evening’ tour, Dudley decided to stay in America to pursue a film career and from 1978 until his death in 1995, Cook no longer collaborated with Moore on a regular basis. Despite both enjoying separate careers and various rumours of a rift within their relationship, the bond between Peter and Dudley remained unbroken, and they reunited to appear in “Can We Talk?” (1986) a UK chat show with Joan Rivers partnered by Peter, a special guest appearance in the Television Special Comic Relief ‘87 (a US Comic Relief show as an annual benefit for the homeless), and later in “The Secret Policeman’s Biggest Ball” for Amnesty International (1989). Peter had appeared in earlier gala Amnesty Shows, staged by John Cleese, including “A Poke in The Eye with a Sharp Stick” (1976), “The Mermaid Frolics” (1977) and “The Secret Policeman’s Ball” (1979).
With Dudley now pursuing a career in the US, Peter remained, for the most part, in the UK appearing in such shows as ITV’s Rock/Pop Show “Revolver” (1978) and in 1980 wrote and recorded an ITV Sketch Show “Peter Cook & Co” for LWT including guests Rowan Atkinson, John Cleese and Terry Jones. In the same year he starred in a one off sketch comedy television special for ITV “Tales of the Much as we Expected” (a parody of ‘Tales of the Unexpected’) where Peter played ‘Ronald Dahl/Roald Dahl’, but in 1981 he did spend some time in LA recording two seasons of the American sit com “The Two of Us” playing an English Butler, Robert Brentwood, alongside Mimi Kennedy for CBS. Having returned home Peter took on roles in notable scripted high rated programmes as “Blackadder” playing ‘Richard III’ (1983), Kenny Everett’s Christmas Carol (1985), “The Comic Strips – Mr Jolly Lives Next Door” (a comedy film written by Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmonson) in which Peter plays a psychopathic hit man (1987) and “One Foot in the Algarve” (1993).
He continued to perform comedy sketch material with credits including “Saturday Live” (1986) for Channel 4 and in 1990 Peter recorded as ‘Arthur Streeb-Greebling’ a series of twelve five-minute interviews with Ludovic Kennedy titled “A Life in Pieces” for BBC2 (1990). He guested on the prime-time quiz “Have I Got News for You?” (1992) and the following year Peter presented more comedy creations in the guise of Norman House (Alien Abductee), Sir James Beauchamp (Judge), Alan Latchley (Football Manager), Eric Daley (rock Star) on “Clive Anderson Talks Back” for Channel 4 to great acclaim. For radio Peter recorded and wrote the Radio 3 series “Why Bother?” a series of interviews between Peter’s ‘Arthur Streeb-Greebling’ and Chris Morris.
Peter had a passion for sport and golf was one of his most favoured. He joined a raft of celebrities taking part in this pastime and played regularly and worldwide. Being Peter, he brought comedy to the game, and wrote an article for Golf World campaigning to get the whole of Hampstead, both the village and the heath, turned into a golf course for the Ryder Cup. Peter also brought his goldfish (named Abe Ginsberg) whom he described as his Manager and Coach, complete with fish bowl, to the Course, placing him eighteen inches to the side, speaking with him about his technique with instruction to watch for any infringements! The game helped create flights of fancy, and perhaps was the inspiration of “Peter Cook Talks Golf Balls!” released on VHS in 1994 where he introduces four characters Alec Dunroonie, Dr Dieter Liedbetter, Major Titherly Glibble and Bill Rossie.
Sadly, Peter Cook died in 1995 aged just 57 but his great comic legacy lives on, with various comedians confirming to being strongly influenced by him. This was reaffirmed beyond question when C4 took a poll from 300 professional comedians who voted Peter Cook as ‘their all time No. 1’ in the television programme The Comedian’s Comedians. Peter was remembered in a Memorial Service at the Parish Church of St. John-at-Hampstead with tributes from Alan Bennett, John Cleese, Eleanor Bron and Dudley Moore.
Unfortunately, the BBC wiped the majority of “Not Only … But Also …”, what remains has been released on VHS and DVD “The Best of What’s Left of Not Only … But Also …” and “The Best of Peter Cook & Dudley Moore” – released on DVD in 2003 by BBC Worldwide.
Posthumous programmes have been produced including “Peter Cook : At a Slight Angle to the Universe” (BBC), “The South Bank Show – Pete n’ Dud : The Lost Series” (ITV) which focused on the three specials recorded for ITV, “The Interviews” (UKTV), “Pete & Dud : The Lost Sketches” (BBC) and most recently with contribution by Peter’s wife, Lin, “The Undiscovered Peter Cook” for Associated Rediffusion Productions for the BBC where Lin allowed the cameras into their martial home for the first time with unprecedented access to his private recordings, diaries, letters, photographs.
In 2004 Company Pictures produced an affectionate film which examines the relationship between Peter & Dudley for Channel 4 “Not Only But Always” starring Welsh actor Rhys Ifans as ‘Peter’.
In 2009 Australian company, Token, produced a tour of Australia, “Good Evening – The Sketches of Peter Cook & Dudley Moore” starring Shaun Micallef and Stephen Curry which included a prestigious season at the Sydney Opera House.
In terms of publishing, Century published and released “Tragically I was an Only Twin – The Complete Peter Cook” edited by William Cook which is the definitive collection of the wit, humour and genius of Peter Cook followed by “Goodbye Again – The Definitive Peter Cook & Dudley Moore”. William Cook later went on to interview Peter and Dudley’s friends, family, colleagues and teachers for a book charting the story of their extraordinary partnership titled “One Leg Too Few – The Adventures of Peter Cook & Dudley Moore” for Preface, and Peter’s wife, Lin Cook, edited “Something Like Fire – Peter Cook Remembered”.
Peter was married three times. His married his first wife, Wendy Snowden, in 1963 both having met at Cambridge and together they had two children, Lucy & Daisy. They divorced in 1971, and a couple of years later he married model, Judy Huxtable. In 1982 Peter met Lin Chong, at the home of Victor Lownes, and discovered they were neighbours in Hampstead. Peter married Lin in 1989 and became a step farther to Lin’s daughter, Nina. They remained married until his death.
