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>Peter Edward Cook
*born in Torquay on 17th
November 1937
*attended St Peters College at Radley public school and graduated to Cambridge University
*October 1958-
joins Cambridge Footlights and establishes himself as an original and influential humorist
*1959- while still an undergraduate,
writes sketches for West End Revues (Kenneth Williams being one of those that would star in these revues)
*1960- elected
president of Footlights
*Jonathan Miller spots him and passes his name to John Bassett, who is assembling a team for a
satirical revue. Peter joins Miller, Alan Bennett and Dudley Moore in ´Beyond The Fringe´. It opened on 10th May 1961 at the
Fortune Theatre, London and ran for five years
(during this show, Peter hired himself an agent-who arranged that while
the other three would be paid GBP100 each, Peter would get GBP110. however,as the agents´ fee was ten percent of earnings-
GBP11- that left Peter to be paid GBP99...)
*October 1961- co-founds satirical night club ´The Establishment´ in Soho.
A 2nd club opens in New York
*1962- bbc commission tv pilot based on The Establishment sketches. Meanwhile, Peter goes
to the New York club and spends the year there
*On returning to Britain, he finds the bbc show has been refashioned as
´That Was The Week That Was´ and made David Frost a star
*so his first regular tv spot was on ´Braden Beat´
*with
money he´d raised from the clubs, he funds satirical magazine ´Private Eye´. within 3 years both Establishments close down
but Private Eye survives
*1965- he writes for and appears with Dudley Moore in ´Not Only But Also´. he was responsible
for the entire script, while Moore provided the musical interludes. sketches included the famous Dagenham Dialogues of Pete
and Dud, and characters such as Sir Arthur Streeb Greebling. the series ran from 1965 to 1970
*1967- they write and star
in ´Bedazzled´
*1970s- they continue working together and during stage shows in New York and Australia, his alcoholism
becomes evident, with Moore wearying of it. this causes a rift and they part ways
*the more risque humour of Pete and
Dud had been bootlegged as ´Derek and Clive´ and developed a cult following. the pair reunite to record 3 collections of improvised
and highly obscene material
*1976- appears on Godley and Creme concept album with then wife Judy Huxtable
*1978- appears
at ´Secret Policemans´ Ball´ for Amnesty International
*1986- relegated to being Joan Rivers´ sidekick on her chat show
*1980s- makes calls to London Radio Night Time as ´Sven from Swiss Cottage´
*1989- marries Lin Chong and finds happiness
at last. also becomes tee-total
*around this time, he works with Chris Morris
*1993- appears on ´Clive Anderson Talks
Back´
*9th January 1995- Peter Cook died from internal haemoragging caused by alcoholism
>love and marriage...
*Peter was married three times
*1964- to Wendy (with whom he had two daughters, daisy and lucy)
*1974- to Judy
*1989- to Lin (whom he then had his step-daughter Nina)
>what people said about him...
*Produced the most incisive,
razor-sharp and funniest satirical comedy
*without doubt,one of the most intelligent wits of his or any other generation
*widely regarded as the father of the British satire boom in the 60s
>and...
*2005- voted number one as The
Comedians Comedian
>now is the time to yield a sigh, now is the time to say goodbye-ee...
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