About Peter
PETER EDWARD COOK
WRITER, ENTERTAINER, PUBLISHER
Born 17 Nov 1937. Died 9Jan: 1995.
Son of Alexander and Margaret Cook.
Married 1964, 2 daughters. Married 1973.
Married Lin, 18 Nov 1989 (met 1982), 1 stepdaughter.
Educated: Radley College and Pembroke College, Cambridge (BA).
Founder: The Establishment Club 1960.
Majority shareholder of Private Eye.
Recreations: gambling, gossip, golf.
PETER COOK
by Stephen Fry
There's a phrase in use these days, as obligatory in reporting as the Tour de France's "coveted" yellow jersey, or the Prime Minister's prefix "the increasingly beleaguered".
When notable people die "tributes flow in" from the world of letters, or the world of sport or the world of comedy.
Tributes have been flowing in all right this past thirty-six hours for Peter Cook, tributes that rightly talk of the unimaginable influence of this extraordinary man on the development of British "cultural" life. I loved him. For the first part of my life I loved him as I listened to record after record of his voice and wriggled with bliss at his comic genius and for the second part of my life I loved him as a friend too. Not having him about is dreadful.
Being British in this part of the century meant living in the country that had Peter Cook in it. There are wits and there are clowns in comedy, I suppose.
Peter was a wit, it goes without saying, but he was funny in an almost supernatural way that has never been matched by anyone I've met or even heard about. It wasn't to do with facial expression or epigrammatic wit, or cattiness or rant or anger or technique: he had funniness in the same way that beautiful people have beauty or dancers have line and grace. He had an ability to make people gasp and gasp and gasp for breath like landed fish. He was not an ambitious man, not concerned with being a star. His ego was not great, he was without worldly vanity. I suppose if the one thing upset him more than anything else it was the idea that people somewhere might in some way feel sorry for him. Why should they? He had his friends, his Private Eye benevolently to oversee, his television to watch, his newspapers to read and fun little jobs to do every now and again.
I watched in some distress the silly remarks last night on the news "flawed genius", "undeveloped potential". What silly ignorant nonsense. Flawed? I would be happy to hear of a list of unflawed human beings. "Unrealised potential"? What does that mean: that his potential would have been realised by appearing in more Hollywood films or in having a regular prime- time TV show? Why commentators have to write and talk about extraordinary people as if they are composing school reports is beyond me. "A fair term's work, but Peter must concentrate more on writing stage plays this year." Whatever you may have heard to the contrary Peter was a man absolutely untainted by bitterness or remorse. He didn't want a yacht, a house in Cap Ferrat or a knighthood; nor did he want a pool in Beverly Hills complete with a string of therapists and pseudo- religions. His achievements in worldly terms are well known: writing for Codron revues when still a student, Beyond the Fringe, founding the Establishment Club the forerunner of today's comedy clubs, Not Only But Also, Derek and Clive, Private Eye... life was good to him and he was good to life. His last years were spent married to the sweet, kind and gentle woman he leaves behind, Lin. He was still making new friends of all ages; he never lost a scintilla of his wit or fun or kindness. The only regret to be uttered is on behalf of a Britain that now has no Peter Cook in it. So let's hear no more sententious hogwash about disappointment, frustration or regret, such talk may deepen or lengthen the obituaries and the feature pages but it's a lie. We shouldn't say goodbye on too sad a note, so I'll leave with a story whose victim, Sir David Frost, won't mind it being told, because he tells it himself. David Frost rang Peter Cook up some years ago. "Peter, I'm having a little dinner party on behalf of Prince Andrew and his new bride-to-be Sarah Ferguson. I know they'd love to meet you, big fans; Be super if you could make it: Wednesday the twelfth." "Hang on... I'll just check my diary." Pause and rummaging and leafing through diary noises. And then Peter said "Oh dear. I find I'm watching television that night."
Lucky old angels, lucky old heaven.
BBC TV The Late Show: 10 January 1995
PETER COOK
By Terry Jones
I came to know Peter Cook in a rather odd way.
Of course I knew of Peter Cook, but I somehow missed Beyond The Fringe -although its humour and the style of the revue dominated my theatre days at Oxford -trying to break free from the style that they had established. I didn't even read Private Eye when it first came out, though I don't know why.
The first time I saw Peter what made the impression was the visual content of what he and Dudley Moore were doing. It was Not Only But Also, and Pete and Dud were dressed up as nuns and were bouncing up and down on a trampoline. I rolled off my seat. I thought I'd ever seen anything so hilarious or so surreal or so... well... beautiful. I spent the next four or five years trying to emulate that sort of visual surprise. The first time I actually encountered Peter in the flesh, I was taking part in a charity show for Amnesty International. I think Peter was going to do one of his E.L.Wisty monologues. For some reason I found myself chatting to Peter in his dressing room and he said: "I've just written this. What d'you think?" He then read out his version of the judge's summing-up in the Jeremy Thorpe trial. Now the trial had only finished the day before -or was it that afternoon? Peter had plucked his humour with consummate ease out of the breath of the moment. During the second half, I stole out into the audience to watch him steal the show with this dazzling piece of extempore humour. It was then that I realised what everyone else had been talking about: the brilliance of Peter's humour. It was brilliant and it was luminous. And it was...easy. Not easy for you and me to come to...but easy for him. It just rolled out of him...almost as if he didn't need to think about it. As Stephen Fry put it: "he was funny in an almost supernatural way that has never been matched by anyone I've ever met or even heard about".
Peter was born in 1937 and educated at Radley College and Pembroke College, Cambridge. He co-authored and then appeared in West End revues while he was still a student: Pieces of Eight in 1958 and One Over The Eight in 1959. Beyond The Fringe occupied him from 1959-64. He founded The Establishment club in London in 1960 and became the majority shareholder of Private Eye, which still performs its function as a thorn in the side of public figures and other absurdities of all shades and varieties. The TV series Not Only But Also ran from 1965-71. He also appeared in a sequence of feature films. In Who's Who he listed his recreations as: gambling, gossip, golf. He died in 1995.
In 1989, Peter married his third wife, Lin, and it was her determination and inspiration that created the Peter Cook Foundation. The Foundation is dedicated to providing a resource for adolescents who suffer from brain damage. At a time when most young people are embarking on a life of independence - to work, university, travel - these children find themselves propelled from the safety of home, school and the company of contemporaries, into a world that is not set up to look after them.
The Peter Cook Foundation aims to establish residential homes where these young adults can remain and be cared for amongst their contemporaries, with music as a constantly available resource.
Peter Cook - A Posthumorous Tribute was staged at the Prince of Wales Theatre on Sunday 29th September 2002. The proceeds of the evening went to The Peter Cook Foundation.
Terry Jones 18/1/03
PETER COOK
by Michael Palin
"A UNIQUE CELEBRATION. LIVING, LAUGHING PROOF OF THE DEBT WE ALL OWE TO PETER."
Co-author:
| Revues Pieces of Eight | 1958 |
| One Over the Eight | 1959 |
Co-author and appeared in:
| Revues Beyond the Fringe | 1959-64 (London & New York) |
| Behind the Fridge | 1971-72 (Australia & London) |
| Good Evening | 1973-75 (USA) |
Television:
| Not Only But Also (four series, BBC) | 1965-71 |
| Alice in Wonderland | 1966 |
| Co-host: Saturday Night Live (USA) | 1975 |
| Revolver (series I TV) | 1978 |
| Peter Cook & Co (Special) | 1980 |
| The Two of Us (series CBS) | 1981-82 |
| Host: Saturday Live (LWT) | 1986 |
| A Life in Pieces | 1990 |
| Gone to Seed (series LWT) | 1992 |
| One Foot in the Algarve (Special) | 1993 |
| Clive Anderson Talks Back (Special) | 1993 |
Films :
| The Wrong Box | 1965 |
| Bedazzled | 1967 |
| A Dandy in Aspic | 1969 |
| Monte Carlo or Bust | 1969 |
| The Bedsitting Room | 1970 |
| The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer | 1971 |
| The Hound of the Baskervilles | 1978 |
| Secret Policeman's Ball | 1980 |
| Derek and Clive | 1980 |
| Yellowbeard | 1982 |
| Supergirl | 1983 |
| Whoops Apocalypse | 1985 |
| Mr Jolly Lives Next Door | 1986 |
| Princess Bride | 1986 |
| Without a Clue | 1986 |
| Getting It Right | 1988 |
| Great Balls of Fire | 1989 |
| Black Beauty | 1993 |
Videos:
| The Best of What's Left of Not Only But Also (BBC) | 1990 |
| Derek and Clive Get the Horn | 1993 |
| Peter Cook Talks Golf Balls | 1994 |
Publications:
| Beyond the Fringe | 1962 |
| Dud and Pete: The Dagenham Dialogues | 1971 |
| Good Evening | 1977 |
