A new film examines the troubled lives of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore - December 18, 2004
Some time around the turn of the 1960s, the young Peter Cook’s wife admiringly asked him, post-coitus: “Is there anything you’re not good at?” The ironical reply came: “Failure. And I don’t intend to let my life be ruined by success, however excessive.” At least, according to Terry Johnson’s brilliant drama Not Only but Always he said it — artistic licence or not, it serves as a convenient portent for the life of triumph, notoriety, depression and alcoholism that followed.
With his sardonic eloquence, lightning-fast repartee and satirical improvisation, Cook was widely recognised by those who met him
as a comic genius. And yet it was when paired with his long-suffering, club-footed partner Dudley Moore that his talents received the level of public attention they deserved.
This love-hate comic marriage, underpinned by the spirit of surreal ad-libbing, is the film’s focus. Cook routinely humiliated Moore, who was often left flailing for a retort (Moore: “Why do you have to constantly belittle me?” Cook: “Dudley, I don’t think it’s possible to belittle a club-footed dwarf whose only talent is to play Chopsticks in the style of Debussy”); but the public adored the diminutive pianist- comic. This became truly apparent when, having left Cook for California, Moore was elevated to the Hollywood A-list, a quirk of fate that Cook, in his drunken torpor, found hard to stomach.
The film covers much ground (from Beyond the Fringe to 10), framed by the black-and-white figures of Pete’n’ Dud passing comment as it unfolds. But any narrative leaps or simplifications are rarely noticeable thanks to two magnetic star turns. Rhys Ifans wholly captures the supercilious poise and nasal delivery of Cook; Aidan McArdle is equally dead-on as cuddly Dudley.
What starts as a re-enactment full of sharp witticisms (which you’ll want to rewind and hear again and again) ends as a portrait of alcoholism. It’s both laugh-out-loud funny and depressing — the truly unmissable programme of the next fortnight.
