PETER COOK AND DUDLEY MOORE

The early years
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were a major force in establishing a completely new comedy era and still remain an ongoing powerful influence on comedy for future generations.

Peter Cook’s comedy career flourished during his time as an undergraduate at Cambridge where he became famous for his monologues for the Cambridge Footlights. At just eighteen he wrote his most celebrated sketch about a one legged man auditioning for the role of Tarzan, as well as writing the revues Pieces of Eight and One Over the Eight which were performed by Kenneth Williams in the West End.

During his time in Cambridge, he also formed an unlikely partnership with a highly talented young man; an accomplished musician, composer, actor and comedian, Dudley Moore who had earned a scholarship to study music at Magdalen College at Oxford University.

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore wrote and starred in, along with Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett, the uniquely memorable satirical revenue Beyond the Fringe which following its debut at the Edinburgh Festival went on to collect rave reviews in London’s West End and on Broadway.

During this time, the immensely popular and influential Peter also opened the Establishment Club in Soho and later became owner of satirical magazine, Private Eye.

TV highlights
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, introducing the hilarious cloth capped duo ‘Pete and Dud’.

Cook and Moore were now household names and three Specials entitled Goodbye Again were commissioned for ITV. Together they also appeared in the comedy feature films The Wrong Box and Bedazzled as well as having jointly written the screenplay, with Dudley having composed the score.

Peter and Dudley went on to tour together with Behind the Fridge in Australia before transferring to New York under the title Good Evening.

Later career
After this tour Dudley decided to stay in America to pursue a film career to great acclaim including renowned feature films such as 10 in which he co-stared with Bo Derek, Arthur with Liza Minnelli (for which Dudley was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actor) and the sequel Arthur 2: On the Rocks as well as Crazy People and Blame It On the Bellboy.

Peter remained, for the most part, in the UK appearing in such popular programmes as Blackadder, The Comic Strips – Mr Jolly Lives Next Door, Not the Nine O’Clock News, Revolver, Have I Got News for You, Why Bother and A Life in Pieces to name but a few. In addition he made numerous appearances with Clive Anderson showcasing new characters as well as making appearances in concerts for Amnesty International.

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 a US Comic Relief concert, and later in The Secret Policeman’s Biggest Ball again for Amnesty International.

Long playing records were also released featuring the notoriously obscene Derek & Clive; 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.

Sadly Peter Cook died in 1995 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.

Dudley found time for his first and greatest passion of music, performing numerous concerts at several Carnegie Hall Benefits for the charitable organisation, Music For All Seasons. Dudley died on March 27, 2002 after a long and debilitating illness, leaving behind a legacy record of comic and musical genius.

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