Dudley Moore

Preview - The Undiscovered Peter Cook

To this day Peter Cook is still considered one of the greatest comedians to have ever lived. A key part of the 1960s satire boom, financial backer for Private Eye magazine, and famed for his partnership with Dudley Moore on TV in Not Only... But Also and on record in the foul-mouth Derek & Clive, Cook was even named The Comedians' Comedian to find the comic most admired by other comedians.

BBC to broadcast sketch containing the c-word 12 times

The Undiscovered Peter Cook features a 70-second piece of dialogue between Cook and his comedy co-conspirator Dudley Moore that uses the c-word 12 times and the f-word 15 times. It's rapid-fire vulgarity and is, almost certainly, the most profanity riddled rant ever broadcast on British TV.

Harry Enfield & Paul Whitehouse, comedy review

Friendly joshing was one of the themes of the night and there was more than an echo of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's spontaneous giggles in Enfield and Whitehouse's bantering, says Bruce Dessau.

Are Derek and Clive too much for the 21st century?

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's relentlessly filthy 70s albums anticipated punk, and influenced both alternative comedy and a generation of smutty teenagers. But is this re-release just too offensive for modern ears?

Derek and Clive are as shocking today as they ever were

Derek and Clive, the characters created in a moment of boredom by Dudley Moore and Peter Cook in 1973, ruined a lot of things for me - lobsters (I can't look at them without thinking of Jayne Mansfield's bum), horse-racing (in my head all the runners have lewd names) and anyone called Colin (you'd best look it up). But for this I am eternally grateful.

Comedy Greats appear on Royal Mail stamps

Spike Milligan, The Two Ronnies, Billy Connolly, Morecambe & Wise, Norman Wisdom, Lenny Henry, Peter Cook & Dudley Moore, Monty Python, French & Saunders and Victoria Wood feature on ten special Royal Mail stamps.

Radio Times review

As part of its 50th birthday celebrations, BBC2 has tiptoed downstairs to the vaults, cleared the dust from the shelves and picked some little-seen and little-remembered comedy treasures from the past half-century.

It has an enviably rich archive to trawl, one full of familiar faces. There are surprises, too, including the unbroadcast pilot of QI. Early BBC2 stalwarts aren't forgotten: there are sketches from Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, and Spike Milligan, whose thoroughly surreal and bizarre Q series ran for well over ten years.

We also get to see an early Borat work-in-progress from Sacha Baron Cohen, as an Albanian called Christo.

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore: The odd couple

A look back at the work of Pete and Dud.

Over on Channel 4, rather later after the watershed for reasons that became quickly obvious, London Irish (***) started another six-week residency. The sitcom, about four Northern Irish twentysomethings living in the UK capital, is created and written by Derryite Lisa McGee. The foursome are sister and brother Bronagh (Sinead Keenan) and Conor (Kerr Logan), who share a flat with Packy (Peter Campion) and Niamh (Kat Reagan). Packy is a slacker, Niamh is a nympho, and has a jailbird boyfriend who bores her but whom she keeps in contact with "for a ride", while Bronagh has range of fruity insults for her dim brother, including "dickswab" and "fucktard".

They are part of a generation mercifully untouched by terrorism, so instead of brooding about the stereotypes of politics, religion and history, they can get on with living up to the, er, stereotypes of drinking too much, having lots of sex and and swearing like navvies. I think there's a joke in there somewhere, but McGee doesn't upend the tired tropes to make them funny.

Last night's story concerned Packy bumping into Ryan (Ciaran Nolan) from back home, who lost his hand while covering a shift in a garage for him, when he was shot in a hold-up. Packy organises a charity quiz - "like an exam in a pub" - at the foursome's local to raise funds for Ryan's new robotic hand. Cue lots of rather weak jokes about not him being able to clap or going to a fancy-dress party as Captain Hook - Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's one-legged actor auditioning for Tarzan it was most definitely not.

The opener was a bit frantic and unfocused, and the actors are all a little too shouty - always a bad sign in a comedy - and, despite some smart lines and the welcome presence of Ardal O'Hanlon as Bronagh and Conor's Da back home, it will have to improve swiftly to gain a dedicated following.