Peter Cook. Copyright: BBC
Peter Cook

Peter Cook (I)

  • English
  • Actor and writer

Press clippings Page 8

Jackie Kennedy 'had affair with Peter Cook'

Jackie Kennedy apparently found time for a fling with British comedian Peter Cook.

Paul Revoir, Daily Mail, 8th December 2009

Richard Lester's adaptation of the play by Spike Milligan and John Antrobus is a truly bonkers curio. Set in a blasted post-apocalypse Britain where roughly 20 people have survived, all of whom steadfastly avoid discussing what has happened, the film features an impressive pantheon of 1960s British talent - Milligan, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Ralph Richardson, Arthur Lowe - attempting to carry on as normal with bicycle-powered public transport and the ever-present threat of mutation.

Lowe turns into a parrot, Moore turns into a sheepdog, and Richardson wearily endures his inexorable transformation into the titular rented accommodation. Bleak, dark, surreal, silly and truly unique.

Empire, 25th May 2009

The long-lost 1969 comedy The Bed Sitting Room is finally given the spotlight it deserves. Based on a rather freeform post-apocalyptic play by Spike Milligan, this is rightfully regarded as something of a missing link in UK comedy. Under Richard Lester's inventive direction, Britain is reduced to around a dozen characters following a nuclear "misunderstanding" and the population dwindles further as radioactivity causes people to mutate into parrots, wardrobes and the titular cheap accommodation - yes, Spike Milligan clearly did write this. It's a bleak and funny mix of music hall gags and Samuel Beckett-style existentialism with a cast including the great Michael Hordern, Arthur Lowe, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Marty Feldman.

Phelim O'Neill, The Guardian, 16th May 2009

What Peter Cook really thought about cuddly Dudley

Previously unshown out-takes from the infamously foul-mouthed 'Derek and Clive' recordings show the true extent of the animosity between Britain's most popular comedy pairing.

James Morrison, The Independent, 22nd December 2002

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