Peter Cook | |
|---|---|
 Cook onKraft Music Hall, 1969 | |
| Born | Peter Edward Cook (1937-11-17)17 November 1937 |
| Died | 9 January 1995(1995-01-09) (aged 57) |
| Resting place | St John-at-Hampstead Churchyard, Hampstead, London, England |
| Alma mater | Pembroke College, Cambridge |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1958–1995 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
Peter Edward Cook (17 November 1937 – 9 January 1995)[2] was an English comedian, actor,satirist, playwright and screenwriter. He was the leading figure of the Britishsatire boom of the 1960s, and he was associated with theanti-establishment comedic movement that emerged in the United Kingdom in the late 1950s.
Born inTorquay, he was educated at theUniversity of Cambridge. There he became involved with theFootlights Club, of which he later became president. After graduating, 1960 saw him create the comedy stagerevueBeyond the Fringe, alongsideAlan Bennett,Jonathan Miller andDudley Moore. In 1961, Cook opened the comedy clubThe Establishment inSoho. After leavingBeyond the Fringe, Cook and Moore began a television career with the sketch comedy showNot Only... But Also in 1965. Cook'sdeadpan monologues contrasted with Moore's buffoonery.[3] They received the 1966British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance.
Following the success of the show, the duo appeared together in the filmsThe Wrong Box (1966) andBedazzled (1967). The 1970s saw Cook and Moore work on a final series ofNot Only... But Also, several stand-up tours, and theDerek and Clive series of comedy albums. After 1978, Cook no longer collaborated with Moore, apart from a few cameo appearances, but continued to be a regular performer in British television and film.
Referred to as "the father of modernsatire" byThe Guardian in 2005, Cook was ranked number one in theComedians' Comedian, a poll of more than 300 comics, comedy writers, producers and directors in the English-speaking world.[4][5]
Cook was born at his parents' house, "Shearbridge", in Middle Warberry Road,Torquay,Devon. He was the only son, and eldest of the three children, of Alexander Edward "Alec" Cook (1906–1984), a colonialcivil servant, and his wife Ethel Catherine Margaret (1908–1994), daughter of solicitor Charles Mayo.[6] His father served as apolitical officer and later as adistrict officer inNigeria, then asfinancial secretary to the colony ofGibraltar, followed by a return to Nigeria asPermanent Secretary of theEastern Region, based atEnugu.[7][8]
Cook's grandfather, Edward Arthur Cook (1869–1914), had also been a colonial civil servant, traffic manager for theFederated Malay States Railway inKuala Lumpur,Malaya. The stress he suffered in the lead-up to an interview regarding promotion led him to commitsuicide. His wife, Minnie Jane (1869–1957), daughter of Thomas Wreford, ofThelbridge andWitheridge, Devon, and ofStratford-upon-Avon, of a prominent Devonshire family traced back to 1440,[9][10] kept this fact secret. Peter Cook only discovered the truth when later researching his family.[11]
Cook was educated atRadley College and then went up toPembroke College, Cambridge, where he read French and German. As a student, Cook initially intended to become a careerdiplomat like his father, but Britain "had run out of colonies", as he put it.[12] Although largely apathetic politically, particularly in later life when he displayed a deep distrust of politicians of all hues, he joined theCambridge University Liberal Club.[13] At Pembroke, Cook performed and wrote comedy sketches as a member of the CambridgeFootlights Club, of which he became president in 1960. His hero was fellow Footlights writer and Cambridge magazine writerDavid Nobbs.[14]
While still at university, Cook wrote forKenneth Williams, providing several sketches for Williams' hitWest End comedy revuePieces of Eight and much of the follow-up,One Over the Eight.
Cook first came to prominence in his own right in the satirical stage showBeyond the Fringe, alongsideJonathan Miller,Alan Bennett, andDudley Moore.[15]Beyond the Fringe became a great success in London after being first performed at theEdinburgh Festival in 1960, and included Cook impersonating theprime minister,Harold Macmillan. This was one of the first occasions satirical political mimicry had been attempted in live theatre, and it shocked audiences. During one performance, Macmillan was in the theatre and Cook departed from his script and attacked him verbally.[16]
In 1961, Cook openedThe Establishment, a club at 18Greek Street inSoho incentral London, presenting fellow comedians in a nightclub setting, including AmericanLenny Bruce. Cook later joked that it was a satirical venue modelled on "those wonderful Berlin cabarets ... which did so much to stop the rise ofHitler and prevent the outbreak of theSecond World War".[17] As a members-only venue, it was outside thecensorship restrictions. The Establishment's regular cabaret performers wereEleanor Bron,John Bird, andJohn Fortune.[18]
Cook befriended and supported Australian comedian and actorBarry Humphries, who began his British solo career at the club. Humphries said in his autobiography,My Life As Me, that he found Cook's lack of interest in art and literature off-putting. Dudley Moore'sjazz trio played in the basement of the club during the early 1960s.
Cook also opened an Establishment club in New York in 1963, withLenny Bruce being one of the comedians who performed there.[19]
In 1962, theBBC 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 performBeyond the Fringe onBroadway. When he returned, the pilot had been refashioned asThat Was the Week That Was and had made a television star ofDavid Frost, something Cook made no secret of resenting. He complained that Frost's success was based on directly copying Cook's own stage persona and Cook dubbed him "the bubonic plagiarist",[20] and said that his only regret in life, according toAlan Bennett, had been saving Frost from drowning. This incident occurred in the summer of 1963, when the rivalry between the two men was at its height. Cook had realised that Frost's potential drowning would have looked deliberate if he had not been rescued.[21]
By the mid 1960s thesatire boom was coming to an end and Cook said: "England was about to sink giggling into the sea."[22] Around this time, Cook provided substantial financial backing for the satirical magazinePrivate Eye, supporting it through difficult periods, particularly inlibel 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. In 1963, Cook married Wendy Snowden. The couple had two daughters, Lucy and Daisy, but the marriage ended in 1970.
Cook's first regular television spot was onGranada Television'sOn the Braden Beat withBernard Braden, where he featured his most enduring character: the static, dour and monotonalE. L. Wisty, whom Cook had conceived for Radley College's Marionette Society.[citation needed]
Cook'scomedy partnership with Dudley Moore led toNot 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 asSir Arthur Streeb-Greebling and the two men created theirPete and Dud alter egos. Other sketches included "Superthunderstingcar", a parody of theGerry Andersonmarionette TV shows, and Cook'spastiche of 1960s trendy arts documentaries – satirised in a parodic segment onGreta Garbo.
When Cook learned a few years later that the videotapes of the series were to bewiped, 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. A compilation of six half-hour programmes,The Best of... What's Left of... Not Only...But Also was shown on television and has been released on bothVHS andDVD.
WithThe Wrong Box (1966) andBedazzled (1967), Cook and Moore began to act in films together. Directed byStanley Donen, the underlying story ofBedazzled is credited to Cook and Moore and its screenplay to Cook. A comic parody ofFaust, it stars Cook as George Spigott (theDevil) who tempts Stanley Moon (Moore), a frustrated short-order chef, with the promise of gaining his heart's desire – the unattainable beauty and waitress at his cafe, Margaret Spencer (Eleanor Bron) – in exchange for his soul, but repeatedly tricks him. The film features cameo appearances byBarry Humphries as Envy andRaquel Welch as Lust. Moore composed the soundtrack music and co-wrote (with Cook) the songs performed in the film. His jazz trio backed Cook on the theme, a parodic anti-love song, which Cook delivered in adeadpan monotone and included his familiar put-down, "you fill me with inertia".
In 1968, Cook and Moore briefly switched toATV for four one-hour programmes titledGoodbye Again, based on the Pete and Dud characters. Cook's increasingalcoholism led him to become reliant oncue cards. The show was not a popular success, owing in part to a strike causing the suspension of the publication of theITVlistings magazineTV Times.John Cleese was also a cast member, who would become lifelong friends with Cook and later collaborated on projects together.[23]
In 1970, Cook took over a project initiated by David Frost for a satirical film about an opinion pollster who rises to become Prime Minister of Great Britain. Under Cook's guidance, the character became modelled on Frost. The film,The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer, was not a success, although the cast contained notable names (including Cleese andGraham Chapman, who were co-writers).
Cook became a favourite of thechat show circuit but his effort at hosting such a show for the BBC in 1971,Where Do I Sit?, was said by the critics to have been a disappointment. It was axed after only three episodes and was replaced byMichael Parkinson, the start of Parkinson's career as a chat show host. Parkinson later asked Cook what his ambitions were, Cook replied jocularly "[...] in fact, my ambition is to shut you up altogether you see!"[24]
Cook and Moore fashioned sketches fromNot Only....But Also andGoodbye Again with new material into the stage revue calledBehind the Fridge. This show toured Australia in 1972, where a TV special was made of it byGTV-9, before transferring to New York City in 1973, retitled asGood Evening. Cook frequently appeared on and off stage the worse for drink. Nonetheless, the show proved very popular and it wonTony andGrammy Awards. When it finished, Moore stayed in the United States to pursue his film acting ambitions in Hollywood. Cook returned to Britain and in 1973, married the actress and modelJudy Huxtable.[clarification needed]
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Later, the more risqué humour of Pete and Dud went further on such LPs as "Derek and Clive". The first recording was initiated by Cook to alleviate boredom during the Broadway run ofGood Evening and used material conceived years before for the two characters but considered too outrageous. One of these audio recordings was also filmed and therein tensions between the duo are seen to rise.Chris Blackwell circulatedbootleg copies to friends in the music business. The popularity of the recording convinced Cook to release it commercially, although Moore was initially reluctant, fearing that his rising fame as aHollywood star would be undermined. Two furtherDerek and Clive albums were released, the last accompanied by a film.
Cook and Moore hostedSaturday Night Live on 24 January 1976 during the show'sfirst season. They did a number of their classic stage routines, including "One Leg Too Few" and "Frog and Peach" among others, in addition to participating in some skits with the show'sensemble cast. In 1978, Cook appeared on the British music seriesRevolver as the manager of a ballroom where emergingpunk andnew wave acts played. For some groups, these were their first appearances on television. Cook'sacerbic commentary was a distinctive aspect of the programme. In 1979, Cook recorded comedy-segments asB-sides to theSparks 12-inch singles "Number One Song in Heaven" and "Tryouts for the Human Race". The main songwriterRon Mael often began with a banal situation in his lyrics and then went at surreal tangents in the style of Cook andS. J. Perelman.
Cook appeared at the first three fund-raising galas staged by Cleese andMartin Lewis on behalf ofAmnesty International. From the third show in 1979 the benefits were dubbedThe Secret Policeman's Balls. He performed on all three nights of the first show in April 1976,A Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick), as an individual performer and as a member of the cast ofBeyond the Fringe, which reunited for the first time since the 1960s. He also appeared in aMonty Python sketch, taking the place ofEric Idle. Cook was on thecast album of the show and in the film,Pleasure at Her Majesty's. He was in the second Amnesty gala in May 1977,An Evening Without Sir Bernard Miles. It was retitledThe Mermaid Frolics for the cast album and TV special. Cook performed monologues and skits withTerry Jones.
In June 1979, Cook performed all four nights ofThe Secret Policeman's Ball, teaming with Cleese. Cook performed a couple of solo pieces and a sketch withEleanor Bron. He also led the ensemble in the finale – the "End of the World" sketch fromBeyond the Fringe.
In response to abarb inThe Daily Telegraph that the show was recycled material, Cook wrote a satire of the summing-up byJustice Cantley in the trial of formerLiberal Party leaderJeremy Thorpe, a summary now widely thought to showbias in favour of Thorpe. Cook performed it that same night (Friday 29 June – the third of the four nights) and the following night. The nine-minute opus, "Entirely a Matter for You", is considered by many fans and critics to be one of the finest works of Cook's career. Along with Cook, producer of the show Martin Lewis brought out an album onVirgin Records entitledHere Comes the Judge: Live, containing the live performance together with three studio tracks that further lampooned theThorpe trial.[25]
Although unable to take part in the 1981 gala, Cook supplied the narration over the animated opening title sequence of the 1982 film of the show. With Lewis, he wrote and voicedradio commercials to advertise the film in the UK. He also hosted a spoof film awards ceremony that was part of the world première of the film in London in March 1982.
Following Cook's 1987 stage reunion with Moore for the annual American benefit for the homeless,Comic Relief (not related to the UKComic Relief benefits), Cook repeated the reunion for a British audience by performing with Moore at the 1989 Amnesty benefitThe Secret Policeman's Biggest Ball.
Cook played multiple roles on the 1977concept albumConsequences, written and produced by former10cc membersKevin Godley andLol Creme. A mixture of spoken comedy andprogressive rock with an environmental subtext,Consequences started as a single that Godley and Creme planned to make to demonstrate their invention, an electric guitar effect calledthe Gizmo, which they developed in 10cc. The project grew into a three-LP box set. The comedy sections were originally intended to be performed by a cast includingSpike Milligan andPeter Ustinov, but Godley and Creme eventually settled on Cook once they realised he could perform most parts himself.
The storyline centres on the impendingdivorce of ineffectual Englishman Walter Stapleton (Cook) and his French wife Lulu (Judy Huxtable). While meeting their lawyers – the bibulous Mr. Haig and overbearing Mr. Pepperman (both played by Cook) – the encroaching global catastrophe interrupts proceedings with bizarre and mysterious happenings, which seem to centre on Mr. Blint (Cook), a musician and composer living in the flat below Haig's office, to which it is connected by a large hole in the floor.
Although it has since developed acult following,Consequences was released as punk was sweeping the UK and proved a resoundingcommercial failure, savaged by critics who found the music self-indulgent. The script and story have evident connections to Cook's own life – his then-wife Judy Huxtable plays Walter's wife. Cook's struggles with alcohol are mirrored in Haig's drinking, and there is a parallel between the fictional divorce of Walter and Lulu and Cook's own divorce from his first wife. The voice and accent Cook used for the character of Stapleton are similar to those of Cook'sBeyond the Fringe colleague, Alan Bennett, and a book on Cook's comedy,How Very Interesting: Peter Cook's Universe and All That Surrounds It, speculates that the characters Cook plays inConsequences are his verbal caricatures of the fourBeyond the Fringe cast members – the alcoholic Haig represents Cook himself, the tremulous Stapleton is Bennett, the parodically Jewish Pepperman is Miller, and the pianist Blint represents Moore.[26]
Cook starred in theLWT specialPeter Cook & Co. in 1980. The show included comedy sketches, including aTales of the Unexpected parody "Tales of the Much As We Expected". This involved Cook asRoald Dahl, explaining his name had been Ronald before he dropped the "n". The cast included Cleese,Rowan Atkinson,Beryl Reid,Paula Wilcox, andTerry Jones. Partly spurred by Moore's growing film star status, Cook moved to Hollywood in that year, and appeared as an uptight English butler to a wealthy American woman in a short-lived United States television sitcom,The Two of Us, also making cameo appearances in a couple of undistinguished films.
In 1983, Cook played the role ofRichard III in the first episode ofBlackadder, "The Foretelling", which parodiesLaurence Olivier's portrayal. In 1984, he played the role of Nigel, the mathematics teacher, inJeannot Szwarc's filmSupergirl, working alongside the evil Selena played byFaye Dunaway. He then narrated the short filmDiplomatix by Norwegian comedy trioKirkvaag,Lystad, andMjøen, which won the "Special Prize of the City of Montreux" at the Montreux Comedy Festival in 1985. In 1986, he partneredJoan Rivers on her UK talk show. He appeared as Mr Jolly in 1987 inThe Comic Strip Presents... episode "Mr. Jolly Lives Next Door", playing an assassin who covers the sound of his murders by playingTom Jones records.
That same year, Cook appeared inThe Princess Bride as the "Impressive Clergyman" who officiates at the wedding ceremony between Buttercup and Prince Humperdinck. Also that year, he spent time working with humouristMartin Lewis on a political satire about the1988 US presidential elections forHBO, but the script went unproduced. Lewis suggested that Cook team with Moore for the US Comic Relieftelethon for the homeless. The duo reunited and performed their "One Leg Too Few" sketch. Cook again collaborated with Moore for the 1989Amnesty International benefit show,The Secret Policeman's Biggest Ball.
A 1984 commercial forJohn Harvey & Sons showed Cook at a poolside party drinking Harvey's Bristol Creamsherry. He then says to "throw away those silly little glasses" whereupon the other party guests toss theirsunglasses in the swimming pool.[27]
In 1988, Cook appeared as a contestant on theimprovisation comedy showWhose Line Is It Anyway? He was declared the winner, his prize being to read the credits in the style of a New Yorkcab driver – a character he had portrayed inPeter Cook & Co.
Cook occasionally called in toClive Bull's night-timephone-inradio show onLBC in London. Using the name "Sven from Swiss Cottage", he mused on love, loneliness, and herrings in a mock Norwegian accent. Jokes included Sven's attempts to find his estranged wife, in which he often claimed to be telephoning the show from all over the world, and his dislike of his fellow Norwegians' obsession with fish. While Bull was clearly aware that Sven was fictional and was happy to play along with the joke, he did not learn of the caller's real identity until later.
In late 1989, Cook married for the third time, toMalaysian-born property developer Chiew Lin Chong inTorbay, Devon. She provided him with some stability in his personal life, and he reduced his drinking to the extent that for a time he wasteetotal. He lived alone in a small 18th-century house in Perrins Walk,Hampstead, while she kept her own property just 100 yards (90 m) away.
Cook returned to the BBC as Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling for an appearance withLudovic Kennedy inA Life in Pieces. The 12 interviews saw Sir Arthur recount his life, based on the song "Twelve Days of Christmas". Unscripted interviews with Cook as Streeb-Greebling and satiristChris Morris were recorded in late 1993 and broadcast asWhy Bother? onBBC Radio 3 in 1994. Morris described them:
It was a very different style of improvisation from what I'd been used to, working with people likeSteve Coogan,Doon Mackichan andRebecca Front, becauseOn the Hour andThe Day Today were about trying to establish a character within a situation, and Cook was really doing 'knight's move' and 'double knight's move' thinking to construct jokes or ridiculous scenes flipping back on themselves, and it was amazing. I mean, I held out no great hopes that he wouldn't be a boozy old sack of lard with his hair falling out and scarcely able to get a sentence out, because he hadn't given much evidence that that wouldn't be the case. But, in fact, he stumbled in with aSafeways bag full of Kestrel lager and loads of fags and then proceeded to skip about mentally with the agility of a grasshopper. Really quite extraordinary.[28]
On 17 December 1993, Cook appeared onClive Anderson Talks Back as four characters – biscuit tester and alien abductee Norman House, football manager and motivational speaker Alan Latchley, judge Sir James Beauchamp, androck legend Eric Daley. The following day, he appeared onBBC2 performing links forArena's "Radio Night". He also appeared in the 1993 Christmas special ofOne Foot in the Grave ("One Foot in the Algarve"), playing a muckrakingtabloid photographer. Before the end of the following year, his mother died, and a grief-stricken Cook returned to heavy drinking. He made his last television appearance on the showPebble Mill at One in November 1994.[29]
Cook was married three times. He married Wendy Snowden, whom he met at university, in 1963. They had two daughters. The couple divorced in 1971.[30] Cook then married the actressJudy Huxtable, in 1973; the marriage ended in divorce in 1989, after they had been separated for some years.[31] He married Chiew Lin Chong in 1989, to whom he remained married until his death. Cook becamestepfather to Chong's daughter, Nina.[32] Following Cook's death, Chong suffered from depression, deriving both from her loss and the difficulties arising from raising Nina, who hadlearning difficulties.[32][33] Chong died aged 71, in November 2016.
Cook was an avid spectator of most popular English sports (exceptrugby league[34]) and was a supporter ofTottenham Hotspur football club,[35] though he also maintained support for his hometown teamTorquay United.[36]
Cook was a heavy smoker. As a regular interviewee on his friendMichael Parkinson's chat showParkinson, he was usually to be seen with a lighted cigarette in his hand or mouth during their broadcast interviews.[34]
Cook died aged 57, whilst in a coma, on 9 January 1995, at theRoyal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London, from agastrointestinal haemorrhage,[30][1] a complication resulting from years of heavy drinking.[1] His body was cremated atGolders Green Crematorium, and his ashes were buried in an unmarked plot behindSt John-at-Hampstead, not far from his home in Perrins Walk.
Dudley Moore attended Cook's memorial service at St John-at-Hampstead on 1 May 1995.[37] He andMartin Lewis presented a two-night memorial for Cook atThe Improv in Los Angeles, on 15 and 16 November 1995, to mark what would have been Cook's 58th birthday.[38]
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Cook is widely acknowledged as a strong influence on the many British comedians who followed him from the amateur dramatic clubs of British universities to theEdinburgh Festival Fringe, and then to radio and television. On his death, some critics choose to see Cook's life as tragic, insofar as the brilliance of his youth had not been sustained in his later years. However, Cook maintained he was "comfortable with limited ambition" not necessarily for the sustained international success that Dudley Moore achieved.[34] He assessed happiness by his friendships and his enjoyment of life.Eric Idle said Cook had not wasted his talent, but rather that the newspapers had tried to waste him.[30]
In 1995 premieredPlay Wisty For Me – The Life of Peter Cook, an original play to pay tribute to Cook.[39]
Several friends honoured him with a dedication in the closing credits ofFierce Creatures (1997), a comedy film written by John Cleese about a zoo in peril of being closed. It starred Cleese alongsideJamie Lee Curtis,Kevin Kline, andMichael Palin. The dedication displays photos and the lifespan dates of Cook and ofnaturalist andhumoristGerald Durrell.
In 1999, theminor planet20468 Petercook, in the mainasteroid belt, was named after Cook.[40]
Channel 4 broadcastNot Only But Always, atelevision film dramatising the relationship between Cook and Moore, withRhys Ifans portraying Cook. At the2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, a play,Pete and Dud: Come Again written byChris Bartlett andNick Awde, examined the relationship from Moore's view. The play was transferred to London'sWest End atThe Venue in 2006 and toured the UK the following year. During the West End run,Tom Goodman-Hill starred as Cook, withKevin Bishop as Moore.
A green plaque to honour Cook was unveiled by theWestminster City Council and the Heritage Foundation at the site ofthe Establishment Club, at 18Greek Street, on 15 February 2009.[36]
Ablue plaque was unveiled by the Torbay Civic Society on 17 November 2014 at Cook's place of birth, "Shearbridge", Middle Warberry Road, Torquay, with his widow Lin and other members of the family in attendance. A further blue plaque was commissioned and erected at the home ofTorquay United,Plainmoor, Torquay, in 2015.[41]
UK chart singles:
both withDudley Moore[42]
Albums:
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