Every generation seems to have its breakthrough comedy. For some it
was The Goons, for others Monty Python. In the late 1950s and early
'60s, it was the satire boom begun by the Beyond The Fringe
Oxbridge troupe of Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and
Alan Bennett. The most acerbic and self-confident of the group,
Cook was generally seen as the genius, despite Bennett's later
pre-eminence as the country's foremost man of letters or Miller's
polymathic energy, or even Moore's energy and jazz skills. In those
early days, Cook's self-confidence led him to write sketches which
had shafts of genuine brilliance running through them. He went on
to form the Establishment, a satirical comedy club, and was the
saviour of Private Eye. The creator of legendary comic character E
L Wisty and the brilliantly self-deluding duo of Pete and Dud (and
their foul-mouthed alter egos, Derek and Clive), there is no
doubting Cook's comic talents. And, by all accounts, he was superb
company, his best jokes and routines told in pubs, bars and dinner
parties to the smug few who were his audiences. But this book
leaves the nagging feeling of a talent allowed to wither on the
vine. William Cook has collated a pretty thorough overview - from
adolescent doodlings which should have remained hidden, through to
the genius of Beyond the Fringe and the excellent work he performed
with Moore. E L Wisty, on the other hand, needs performing not
reading, and Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling, great though he is,
doesn't bear the repetition he gets here. And the work Cook did for
the Daily Mail should be buried deep under the sea. From then on,
the occasional piece that works shines more brightly than it
should, though we end with a piece of melancholic brilliance which
Cook performed unannounced on a late-night radio phone-in: Sven the
morose Norwegian, obsessed with fish and his on-off relationship
with Jutta, his wife. The fact that Cook did not spend his life
performing for the public is a tragedy for the public rather than
Cook - he knew he had reached the heights. This book is a reminder
both of how high he could go, and of how rarely he bothered to do
so. (Kirkus UK)
For his many friends and fans, Peter Cook was quite simply the funniest man they'd ever encountered. And nearly eight years since his death, his status as one of Britain's greatest comedians shows no sign of shrinking. Despite his reputation for idleness, Peter Cook was a prolific writer, who created countless outrageous sketches and articles, the very best, the most famous and some of the most unusual are collected here. Some of these pieces have never been published before, others are out of print, a few only survive in print, and many have only ever been seen or heard - never read.
This collection ranges from Cook's first writing, at school and university, via Beyond The Fringe, with Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller, his dualogues with Moore as Pete & Dud and Derek & Clive, and their brilliant TV series, Not Only But Also, to transcripts of his late, great TV appearances, and a selection of his journalism for the Daily Mail, the Evening Standard and Private Eye.
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