The Best Of What's Left Of Not Only Peter Cook But Also Dudley Moore
A true television comedy classic - not only Peter Cook but also Dudley Moore combining to provide three brilliant series of sketch comedy, beginning in 1965 and ending in 1970. The two made a perfect double-act, the tall, elegant, rapier-witted Peter Cook contrasting with the small and more intense Moore.
The show had scores of high points, but the wonderful 'Dagenham Dialogues' - in which 'Pete', as a confident but ill-informed bore, held forth to 'Dud', a scruffy, even less informed herbert - were triumphs of surreal writing and dazzling improvisation that brought tears to the eyes of the audience - and occasionally to Moore too, flummoxed into a stifled hysteria by one of Cook's delicious ad-libs or flights of humorous fancy; miraculously, Moore always returned from the brink of disaster to get the sketch back on track. Many of the Dud and Pete sequences are rightfully regarded as classics of the genre, from the first - informally titled 'Sex Fantasies' - in which they recounted how they had brutally despatched Greta Garbo and Jane Russell from their bedrooms and ordered them never to come back, through 'Dud And Pete At The Zoo', 'Dud And Pete On Sex', 'Religions', 'Superstitions' and 'Dud Dreams', to arguably the greatest British TV comedy sketch of all time, 'Dud And Pete At The Art Gallery', in which the pair meet up to eat their sandwiches and discuss the paintings in their quasi-knowledgeable but blissfully ill-informed manner.

If Not Only...But Also had merely given viewers the Dud and Pete sketches, this would have been enough, but there was so much more to enjoy. It also featured the surrealistic ramblings of Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling (Cook, explaining how to teach ravens to fly underwater, and run a restaurant called 'The Frog And Peach') and a slew of great sketches including several memorable father-and-son sequences (in which, characteristic of all their comedy, Cook was the dominant force); a film showing an order of leaping nuns who take to the trampoline after prayers; 'Bo Dudley', in which blues pianist Moore innocently explained away a song lyric that was clearly stuffed with sexual references; and a fine spoof on the puppet adventure show Thunderbirds. There were also some excellent musical moments from Moore (with and without his modern-jazz group, the Dudley Moore Trio) and, on the same melodic theme, inspired opening and closing sequences for every programme. In the introductions Moore and Cook were shown at a piano and then the camera would pull back to reveal the more and more unlikely settings in which they were being filmed: underwater, on board an aircraft carrier, in a car wash, and so on. At the end of every show Moore played piano and sang with Cook the song (composed by Moore) that became their theme music, 'Goodbye-ee'.

There were many guest appearances in the three series, most notably from John Lennon (in the first show and again in the 1966 Christmas special), Barry Humphries, Spike Milligan, Ronnie Barker, Norman Rossington, Sheila Steafel, Anna Quayle, Eric Sykes and Alan Bennett. In the 1970 series - which followed a gap of four years and was the only one made in colour - guests were encouraged to participate in 'Poets Cornered', a nerve-wracking showcase for ad-lib raconteuring: those who deliberated or failed were dumped headlong into a pool of foamy sludge. (In so doing, Not Only...But Also became a forerunner of Tiswas and all the other shows of the 1970s and onwards that delighted in such visually appealing excesses.)

In an act of appalling corporate blunder, the BBC wiped or junked many editions of Not Only...But Also from its archives in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as it did, so indiscriminately, with many hundreds of other programmes. Some editions therefore no longer exist, but surviving sequences were compiled into a one-off 40-minute programme, The Best Of Not Only...But Also, screened by BBC2 on 24 December 1974, for which Cook and Moore added new wraparound sequences, shot in New York where they were touring with the stage show Good Evening (see Behind The Fridge). Enough old shows were then scraped together (some were rescued from the archives of overseas TV companies to which, fortunately, the BBC had sold copies in the 1960s) to enable the BBC to piece together six half-hour compilation shows, screened on BBC2 from 4 November to 9 December 1990 as The Best Of What's Left Of Not Only...But Also (the highlights from which were released on video). Their partnership broken for more than a decade to this point, Cook and Moore reunited to promote the series and video in trailers and chat-show appearances.

Notes. Not Only...But Also was conceived as a showcase for Dudley Moore, with Peter Cook in a subsidiary role, but by the second programme the two were firmly established as joint leads. (The first series was actually titled Not Only...But Also... but the second ellipsis was dropped after this.) Most of the sketches were written by Cook but were credited to Peter Cook/Dudley Moore.

Not Only...But Also originated as a BBC2 show but the channel was not available nationally at this time (and where it was transmitted, it was only receivable on new or adapted older sets). So all three series were repeated on the fully available BBC1, usually quite soon afterwards. The first series (only six of the seven editions) was repeated from 20 May to 24 June 1967; the second was screened by BBC1 from 21 May 1966 to 2 July 1967 in a prime-time Saturday-night slot; the special was repeated on 7 February 1967; and the third and final series (the seven editions were edited from 45 to 30 mins) went out from 18 September to 30 October 1970. During this same period Cook and Moore also made some shows for ATV - see Goodbye Again.
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's screen ventures around this time were many, most but not all featuring them as a pair. Cook played the Mad Hatter in his fellow revue star Jonathan Miller's weird and wonderful adaptation of Alice In Wonderland (BBC1, 28 December 1966). Moore appeared in many music shows on radio and television. Both men appeared together on ITV in The New London Palladium Show on 26 September 1965, on that year's Royal Variety Show (broadcast by ITV on 14 November 1965 and leading to an excellent EP record of the Dud and Pete sketch they performed, 'By Appointment') and, through some success with their Decca singles, on such pop shows as Ready, Steady, Go! The pair also acted together in a number of feature films at this time (Bedazzled, The Wrong Box, The Bed-Sitting Room and Monte Carlo Or Bust) and on TV in John Antrobus's absurdist comedy An Apple A Day.
Both Peter Cook and Dudley Moore died young, Cook on 3 January 1995, aged 57, Moore on 27 March 2002, aged 66. TV tributes to the former have been numerous: an Omnibus special, Some Interesting Facts About Peter Cook (BBC1, 19 December 1995), a Heroes Of Comedy biography (C4, 19 January 1998), a briefer treatment in the ITV1 series Legends (20 August 2002) and the fine Peter Cook - At A Slight Angle To The Universe (BBC2, 28 December 2002). Prior to his death Moore was the subject of The South Bank Show (ITV, 13 June 1993), Legends (ITV, 12 July 2000) and two programmes that anticipated his demise: The Obituary Show (C4, 30 May 1995) and an Omnibus documentary that charted the course of his debilitating and fatal illness, Dudley Moore - After The Laughter (BBC1, 4 December 2000). The Real Derek And Clive, a documentary about Cook and Moore's depraved alter egos, was screened by C4 on 25 December 2002.

On 30 December 2004, C4 screened Not Only But Always, writer/director Terry Johnson's biographical drama depicting Cook and Moore's generally volatile relationship. Peter Cook was portrayed by Rhys Ifans, Dudley Moore by Aidan McArdle - and both men delivered virtuoso performances.
Researched and written by Mark Lewisohn



More info:
Code: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_Only..._But_Also
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/notonlybutalso/index.shtml
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0128004/
http://www.amazon.ca/Not-Only-Also-Joseph-McGrath/dp/6302136199

DVB (VHS) > DivX // 6 episodes for a total of 702 MB - 30 mins each show
Channel: BBC 1
Date: 1991



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http://rapidshare.com/files/107539855/NOBA2.part2.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/107540088/NOBA3.rar

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http://rapidshare.com/files/107541161/NOBA6.part1.rar
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