Why You Should Stan Peter Cook and Dudley Moore

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They’re very important to comedy, these two and the other guys from Beyond Fringe (Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller) still inspire comedians to this day. Before Monty Python there was Peter and Dudley. Unfortunately America & many other countries seem to forget about them

They made satire in England popular and then taking it to the US when they performed Beyond the Fringe on broadway in the early 60s. Everyone who was anybody came including Jackie Kennedy (who supposedly had an affair with Peter but that’s another story)

ANYWAYS afterwards Dudley went on to his own tv show called Not Only But Also, he wanted Peter to join him and soon enough he became a costar on the show for as long as it ran. Here they are performing a skit for the stage version in the 70s written by Peter when he was 18.

After the success of Not Only But Also they started to costar in movies together, their biggest hit was Bedazzled in 1967 with Raquel Welch. Unfortunately the shitty 2000 remake with Brendan Fraser seems to get more attention now a days

They went on a tour of England, Australia, & America performing their show Behind the Fridge in 1974. That show included some old skits but also new ones, here’s part of one of my personal favorites where Peter visits his dad (Dudley) shortly after his mom dies

Their dynamic together was genius between Peter’s great writing and Dudley’s wonderful acting, there’s no surprise that they were so popular. Peter almost always made Dudley break character which made the shows even more fun, like in this one Spaghetti skit from the 70s

They broke up in the late 70s after their Derek and Clive albums which were quite the controversy since they said every cuss word imaginable and people were SHOOK. Unfortunately Peter’s drinking got so bad it was hard to get him to perform and Dudley got tired of babysitting.

Dudley went on to be an actor in many popular movies in the States including Foul Play, 10, Arthur, Micki & Maude, etc etc. He also continued his music, he was quite the talented piano player. Here he is in Behind the Fridge playing different songs at the same time

Peter continued doing projects in England with various celebrities like John Cleese, Rowan Atinkson, etc he performed at the Secret Police Men’s Ball many times and also showed up in tv shows like Blackadder. Unfortunately he never got international stardom on his own like Dudley

The duo reunited for charity gigs in the late 80s & 90s sadly Peter died in 1995 at 57 and Dudley in 2002 at 66. Their legacy lives on though even if the BBC lost a lot of video archives plenty of videos made it and they're on YouTube and other sites

It makes me sad to think a lot of people don't know about them and I hope this won't totally flop and maybe someone will want to watch more of their stuff. They were both wonderful humans