Peter Cook

Peter Edward Cook was an actor, writer, satirist and comedian. He was a leading figure of the British satire boom of the 1960s and associated with the anti-establishment comedic movement that emerged in Britain during the late 1950s.

Referred to as the father of modern satire by The Guardian newspaper in 2005, Cook was ranked number one in the Comedians' Comedian, a poll of more than 300 comics, comedy writers, producers, and directors throughout the English-speaking world.

I have learned from my mistakes, and I am sure I can repeat them exactly

As a student, Cook initially intended to become a career diplomat like his father, but Britain had run out of colonies, as he put it.

At Pembroke College, Cambridge, Cook performed and wrote comedy sketches as a member of the Cambridge Footlights Club, of which he became president in 1960. His hero was fellow Footlights writer and Cambridge magazine writer David Nobbs.

While still at university Cook wrote for Kenneth Williams, providing several sketches for Williams's hit West End comedy revue Pieces of Eight and much of the follow-up, One Over the Eight, before finding prominence in his own right in a four-man group satirical stage show, Beyond the Fringe, alongside Jonathan Miller, Alan Bennett and Dudley Moore.

I saw an advertisement the other day for the secret of life. It said "The secret of life can be yours for twenty-five shillings. Sent to Secret of Life Institute, Willesden."

So I wrote away, seemed a good bargain, secret of life, twenty-five shillings. And I got a letter back saying, "If you think you can get the secret of life for twenty-five shillings, you don't deserve to have it. Send fifty shillings for the secret of life."

In 1961, Cook opened The Establishment, a club at 18 Greek Street in Soho in central London, presenting fellow comedians in a nightclub setting, including American Lenny Bruce.

In 1962, the BBC commissioned a pilot for a television series of satirical sketches based on the Establishment Club, but it was not immediately picked up and Cook went to New York City for a year to perform Beyond The Fringe on Broadway. When he returned, the pilot had been refashioned as That Was the Week That Was and had made a star of David Frost, something Cook resented.

Cook provided financial backing for the satirical magazine Private Eye, supporting it through difficult periods, particularly in libel trials. Cook invested his own money and solicited investment from his friends. For a time, the magazine was produced from the premises of the Establishment Club.

Cook's first regular television spot was on Granada Television's Braden Beat with Bernard Braden, where he featured his most enduring character: the static, dour and monotonal E. L. Wisty.

I don't give a toss if people say I haven't fulfilled my promise. I think my values are right, but I don't want to impose them on other people. I've been lucky enough to be a born in a democratic country where I can say what I like, with parents who were decent, intelligent people, where I'm reasonably well off, and where I've met a lot of interesting people and been to some interesting places. How much luckier can you get?

Cook's comedy partnership with Dudley Moore led to Not Only... But Also. This was originally intended by the BBC as a vehicle for Moore's music, but Moore invited Cook to write sketches and appear with him. Using few props, they created dry, absurd television that proved hugely popular and lasted for three series between 1965 and 1970. 

Cook played characters such as Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling and the two men created their Pete and Dud alter egos.

When Cook learned a few years later that the videotapes of the series were to be wiped, a common practice at the time, he offered to buy the recordings from the BBC but was refused because of copyright issues. He suggested he could purchase new tapes so that the BBC would have no need to erase the originals, but this was also turned down. Of the original 22 programmes, only eight still survive complete.

With The Wrong Box (1966) and Bedazzled (1967) Cook and Moore began to act in films together. Directed by Stanley Donen, the underlying story of Bedazzled is credited to Cook and Moore and its screenplay to Cook.

In 1976 the more risqué humour of Pete and Dud fully embraced the punk movement of the time on long-playing records as Derek and Clive.

In 1980, Cook starred in the LWT special Peter Cook & Co. The show included comedy sketches, including a Tales of the Unexpected parody Tales of the Much As We Expected. The cast included John Cleese, Rowan Atkinson, Beryl Reid, Paula Wilcox and Terry Jones.

In 1983, Cook played the role of Richard III in the first episode of Blackadder, The Foretelling, which parodies Laurence Olivier's portrayal of the role.

In 1987, he appeared as Mr Jolly in The Comic Strip Presents' episode Mr. Jolly Lives Next Door, playing an assassin who covers the sound of his murders by playing Tom Jones records.

Life is a matter of passing the time enjoyably. There may be other things in life, but I've been too busy passing my time enjoyably to think very deeply about them. Even if I did, they would be pretty obvious thoughts, so I'd certainly keep them to myself. All right, I will try a little bit of the spinach...

On 17 December 1993, Cook appeared on Clive Anderson Talks Back as four characters – biscuit tester and alien abductee Norman House, football manager and motivational speaker Alan Latchley, judge Sir James Beauchamp and rock legend Eric Daley.

He made his last television appearance on the show Pebble Mill at One in November 1994.

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