Cook Peter - One Leg Too Few: The Adventures of Peter Cook and Dudley MoorE

CONTENTS

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were Britains greatest double act. Brought together in Beyond The Fringe, the finest revue ever seen in the West End or on Broadway, they reinvented the sketch show in Not Only...But Also, created a comic duo, Pete & Dud, to rival Laurel & Hardy, and tore it all apart as Derek & Clive.

They were the first comedians with rock star status. Their influence is immense. They inspired several generations of comics, from Monty Python to Ricky Gervais, yet their partnership fell apart when they were barely in their forties. Dudley went to Hollywood, where he became an unlikely sex symbol. Peter remained in Hampstead, his occasional brilliant cameos punctuated by increasingly long periods of semi-retirement. Peter died in his late fifties. Dudley died in his late sixties.

Neither of them fulfilled their vast potential, so the saying goes, but they still achieved far more than most comedians can even dream of. They bridged the British class divide. They were stars in America and Australia. They made some of the best TV programmes (and a couple of the worst movies) the public had ever seen.

One Leg Too Few is their story. Its the story of an extraordinary partnership a friendship, a relationship, almost at times a marriage. With new interviews with friends and colleagues, teachers and relatives, it charts the rise and fall and enduring legacy of a double act that changed the British sense of humour.

William Cook edited Tragically I Was An Only Twin and Goodbye Again, two biographical anthologies of the work of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. He is the author of several other books about comedians, including The Comedy Store and Morecambe & Wise Untold. He has worked for the BBC and has written for the Guardian, the New Statesman and the Mail on Sunday. He currently contributes to the Independent and the Spectator. He has won various prizes for his travel writing, including the Johann Strauss Gold Medal for his reporting from Vienna. His most recent publication is Kiss Me, Chudleigh The World According To Auberon Waugh.

Goodbye Again
Tragically I was an Only Twin

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Copyright William Cook 2013

William Cook has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission. The publisher apologises for any errors or omissions and, if notified of any corrections, will make suitable acknowledgement in future reprints or editions of this book.

First published in Great Britain in 2013 by Preface Publishing
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 848 09333 1

This book is dedicated to Peter Cork and Peter Way

Biography is a team game, whichever name goes on the cover, and I am most grateful to all the following individuals and institutions without whose help this book would probably still have been written, but almost certainly by someone else:

Gillon Aitken

Nick Austin

Andrew Barrow

John Bassett

Alexandra Bastedo

Michael Bawtree

Francis Bennett

Michael Billington

Gaye Brown

Michael Burrell

Edward Cook

Elizabeth Cook

Judy Cook

Lin Cook

Sophie Cook

Thea Cook

Wendy Cook

Peter Cork

Brian Dallow

David Dearlove

Trevor Dolby

Eleanor Fazan

Rena Fruchter

John Gale

Lisolette Gale

Nicholas Garland

Patrick Garland

Georgia Glover

Vera Grigg

Andrew Gordon

Melanie Haselden

Jonathan Harlow

Amelia Harvell

Tony Hole

Barry Humphries

Bruce Hunter

Suzy Kendall

Andrew Kidd

Chris Langham

Roger Law

Ken Loach

Elisabeth Luard

Gillian Lynne

David Maclaren Webster

Sally McLaren

Joe McGrath

Bob Miller

Amy Mitchell

Barbara Moore

Richard Morgan

Katherine Murphy

Mavis Nicholson

Michael Parkinson

Imogen Pelham

Robert Ponsonby

Peter Preston

Peter Raby

Linda Rhodes

Teresa Rudge

Clare Sargent

Sarah Seymour

Robert Smith

Barbara Stevens

Bernard Stevens

Mark Wareham

Elizabeth Way

Peter Way

Teresa Wells

Suzanne Westrip

Norma Winstone

Aitken Alexander Associates
Associated Newspapers
Billy Marsh Associates
Carr Design Studio
David Higham Associates
Martine Avenue Productions
Music for All Seasons
Radley College
Valence House

One of my favourite sketches I wrote very early on, when I was about eighteen. It was called One Leg Too Few, about a one-legged man auditioning for the part of Tarzan. Its a bit alarming that I wrote it at eighteen. I dont think Ive written anything better since.

(Peter Cook, Success Story, BBC, May 1974)