Peter Cook and Dudley Moore

Goodbye Again

A unique collection of the finest work, including never before seen footage of comedy genius, and a fascinating insight into the relationship of Britain's greatest comic double act - Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. An illuminating and hilarious part-biography, part comic anthology of two of history's most famous comedians.

This volume of Pete and Dud sketches is... invaluable

William Cook is the author of six comedy books, including Tragically I Was an Only Twin: The Complete Peter Cook (Arrow), Ha Bloody Ha - Comedians Talking (Fourth Estate) and The Comedy Store - The Club That Changed British Comedy (Little, Brown). He has worked for the BBC and as a journalist for the Guardian, the Mail on Sunday and New Statesman. 
 
Peter Cook (1937 - 1995) is one of Britain's most famous and well-respected comedians. Famous for his role as a leading satirist, Cook was a TV chat show host, writer and performer of theatre comedy sketches and one half of the great comedy double act, Pete and Dud, with fellow comedian Dudley Moore. 
 
Dudley Moore (1935 - 2002) is not only famous for his hugely successful comedy partnership with Peter Cook. A world-famous comedy actor, he became a Hollywood star and won an Oscar for his role in the hit comedy film Arthur, alongside John Gielgud and Liza Minelli.

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore are the greatest double act that Great Britain has ever produced. This collection of their works is a comprehensive compilation of the finest comedy sketches that Cook and Moore ever wrote together - from the beginning of their partnership, in the groundbreaking stage show, Beyond The Fringe, to the notorious taboo busting Derek and Clive LPs that captured the spirit of punk rock, and inspired the scatological anarchy of Alternative Comedy. Featuring transcripts of one night stands long since almost forgotten, as well as a wealth of virtually unknown material, including previously unpublished scripts for Not Only But Also, Goodbye Again is a revelation, even for Cook and Moore's most informed fans. 
 
As well as illuminating their work, this book also promises to shed light on their intimate yet turbulent relationship. It will show how these two diametrically opposed men; tall and athletic Cook from a middle class public boarding school background, and diminutive, club-footed Moore, working class but with an impressive musical talent, came together to develop the closest of partnerships based on an instinctive, virtually intuitive sense of humour. Goodbye Again will chart the extraordinary friendship between the two men and its almost telepathic intensity, which not only bought them together but also pulled them apart time after time, until their eventual reconciliation.

The Comedy of Peter Cook

Tragically I Was an Only Twin

A hilarious collection of comedy sketches, scripts, musings and never before seen, or read, footage from one of history's funniest comedians, revealed here as a comedy writer of unparalleled talent and humour.

Peter Cook (Author) 
 William Cook is the author of Ha Bloody Ha - Comedians Talking (Fourth Estate) and The Comedy Store - The Club That Changed British Comedy (Little, Brown). He has worked for the BBC and written for the Guardian, the Mail on Sunday and the New Statesman. 
 
William Cook (Author) 
 William Cook’s most recent book is One Leg Too Few - The Adventures of Peter Cook &amp; Dudley Moore, published by Preface. 
 
He is also the author of Ha Bloody Ha (Fourth Estate), The Comedy Store (Little, Brown), Morecambe &amp; Wise Untold (HarperCollins) and 25 Years of Viz (Macmillan). 
 
He edited Kiss Me, Chudleigh - The World According to Auberon Waugh (Hodder), Eric Morecambe Unseen (HarperCollins), and Tragically, I Was An Only Twin and Goodbye Again, two biographical anthologies of the work of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, both published by Century. 
 
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, the Spectator and Conde Nast Traveller. He has won several awards for his travel writing, including the Johann Strauss Gold Medal for his writing about Vienna.

For his many friends and fans, Peter Cook was quite simply the funniest man they'd ever encountered. And nearly eight years since his death, his status as one of Britain's greatest comedians shows no sign of shrinking. Despite his reputation for idleness, Peter Cook was a great comedy writer, who created countless outrageous sketches and articles and was famed for his prolific role in the satire boom of the 1960s. The very best, the most famous and some of the most unusual of his comic masterpieces are collected here. Some of these pieces have never been published before, others are out of print, a few only survive in print, and many have only ever been seen or heard - never read. This collection ranges from Cook's first writing, at school and university, via Beyond The Fringe, with Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller, his dualogues with Moore as Pete &amp; Dud and Derek &amp; Clive, and their brilliant TV series, Not Only But Also, to transcripts of his late, great TV appearances, and a selection of his journalism for the Daily Mail, the Evening Standard and Private Eye.

William Cook

With wit and warmth, William Cook charts the rise of a remarkable 20 year comedic partnership - and how it fell apart.

A well written biography by a talented writer... William Cook charts the progress of their unlikely marriage very perceptively

This is the definitive biography of the double act; not only informative but also vastly entertaining.

Sympathetic yet sharp-eyed, he gives a vivid, poignant sense of the forces that held them together and which, ultimately, tore them apart.

The author deftly weaves together camaraderie, comedy and collapse – and beloved sketches lift off the page. A nostalgic joy

William Cook’s dual biography is absorbing and incisive… This book goes a long way towards unravelling the enigma of two men who redefined the art of comedy. It is touching, funny, sad, tragic; all the things Pete and Dud were. And that is all you can ask of a biographer.

What makes William Cook's biography especially touching is its sense that, despite their messy divorce, they never stopped loving each other. Cook recounts their story with wit and clarity. But it is as a psychological portrait of the pair's devoted then fractured friendship, that the book is really compelling

Detailed and moving account of the career of this eternally popular yet fatally ill-matched comedy duo

William Cook is supremely knowledgeable about British comedy, and has interviewed many insiders. So read this and weep.

One Leg Too Few will feature an extensive range of fresh interviews, previously unpublished archive material and a wealth of information about the most creative (and explosive) double act that British comedy has ever produced. 
 
One Leg Too Few is a book about an extraordinary relationship: a friendship, a partnership - almost, at times, a marriage. Like a lot of marriages it ended badly, but for nearly 20 years, between the first date and the inevitable divorce, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were the funniest thing on three continents. 
 
One Leg Too Few is the story of that relationship, and the comedy that came from it.

William Cook

Praise for One Leg Too Few

With wit and warmth, William Cook charts the rise of a remarkable 20 year comedic partnership - and how it fell apart.

A well written biography by a talented writer... William Cook charts the progress of their unlikely marriage very perceptively

This is the definitive biography of the double act; not only informative but also vastly entertaining.

With wit and warmth, William Cook charts the rise of a remarkable 20 year comedic partnership - and how it fell apart.

A well written biography by a talented writer... William Cook charts the progress of their unlikely marriage very perceptively

This is the definitive biography of the double act; not only informative but also vastly entertaining.

With wit and warmth, William Cook charts the rise of a remarkable 20 year comedic partnership - and how it fell apart.

A well written biography by a talented writer... William Cook charts the progress of their unlikely marriage very perceptively

This is the definitive biography of the double act; not only informative but also vastly entertaining.

Books by William Cook

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