Peter Cook

Cook said it was a satirical venue modelled on "those wonderful Berlin cabarets... which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the outbreak of the Second World War"; as a members-only venue it was outside the censorship restrictions. Cook befriended and supported Australian comedian and actor Barry Humphries, who began his British solo career at the club. Humphries said in his autobiography, My Life As Me, that he found Cook's lack of interest in art and literature off-putting. Cook's chiselled looks and languid manner led Humphries to observe that whereas most people take after their father or mother, Cook seemed more like an aunt. Dudley Moore's jazz trio played in the basement of the club during the early 1960s.

In 1962, the BBC commissioned a pilot for a television series of satirical sketches based on the Establishment club, but it was not picked up straight away and Cook went to New York for a year to perform in Beyond The Fringe on Broadway. When he returned, the pilot had been refashioned as That Was The Week That Was and had made a star of David Frost, something Cook resented. The 1960s satire boom was closing and Cook said that Britain would "sink into the sea under the weight of its own giggling". He complained that Frost's success was based on copying Cook's own stage persona and that his only regret in life had been once saving Frost from drowning. Read Less

Cook appeared in The Princess Bride that year as the "Impressive Clergyman". Read Less

She provided him with some stability in his personal life and he reduced his drinking, to the extent that for a time he was teetotal. He lived alone in a small 18th century house in Perrins Lane, Hampstead, once owned by H.G. Wells, while his wife kept her own property only 100 yards away.

Cook returned to the BBC as Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling for an appearance with Ludovic Kennedy in A Life in Pieces. The 12 interviews saw Sir Arthur recount his life based on the Twelve Days of Christmas. Read Less