A self indulgent piece of tosh

Think you'll find it was based upon Peter Cook's Auto/biography so if you have problems I would take issue with that first, before dismissing this fine piece of work.

-----Peter Cook was a comedy genuis. The people in this film couldn't clean his shoes. How dare they!!??-----

Were you watching the same show as everyone else? He was portrayed as a genius, but one that was fatally flawed, which he was. How about the scene where Dudley Moore goes mental over the fact that he learnt his lines and did his best on stage while Peter Cook went on stage drugged up and drunk and got rave reviews. True, most of the focus of the show was his jealousy of Dudley Moore success in Hollywood, but as I said it was based on the auto/biography.

---I find it pathetic how a film can be made about someone's life after their death, with all the "nasty" bits in it----

Not a good argument, just cause your a fan of his doesnt mean you can't see both sides of the man's character. They had an extremely volatile relationship, my mother told me that years ago, when watching 'pete and dud' on a clip show. As i said, Peter was jealous, and probably Dud hated Pete cause of his natural talent. And of course turning up drunk two minutes before they were due on stage.

I have to agree with the tv reviewers I've seen on various media, it was the best thing on over the christmas period, and possibly the year.

You have to remember this was written by Terry Johnson, who also wrote the dreadful 'Cor Blimey!'. Johnson stopped short of digging up Peter Cook's corpse and throwing stones at it, but you get the feeling he would have done just that if he'd been allowed.

I thought the casting and acting was great. It seemed like Peter Cook's life was just one entire string of miserable disappointments and schadenfreude. I would have liked to have seen him happily enjoying himself at least once.

Any happiness they did show was always in the context of a greater loss, like the good times he spent with his children, right before he loses custody of them.

Originally by gregforttmags

I somehow doubt a small guy like Moore would be a wife beater (or not in the classical sense).

Originally by he312

probably Dud hated Pete cause of his natural talent.

Oh please! If Peter Cook himself could admit his flaws why can't you? He wasn't a god, he was a massively talented, tragically flawed human being.

I enjoyed this movie.
I certainly didn't think it was "tosh" and I found Rhys Ifans' Peter Cook well observed and believable and ditto Aidan McArdle's Dudley Moore.
Excellent acting in fact.

But as has been said it's also a drama.

My own view is that like any long-term and successful double act (but absolutely unlike most) Cook and Moore had moments of sheer brilliance (the rare sort remembered for decades and by generations) and also that on-going human 'grit' that provoked lasting moments of sheer hell.

Moore simply had enough and left to go and be a star in the US movies (he was already one in the UK and the US and Australian stage before he left).

I'm not sure Moore was so calculated or nasty either (tho his marital problems have become part of the public record after being taken to court for volent behaviour).
They were products of their time, a time when satire could get you attacked n the street or arrested.

No wonder Derek and Clive worried him so - particularly in straight-laced America.
Pity they changed scripts with that part of the movie as in my view Derek and Clive are very under-rated and misunderstood.
If you think it is just an endless stream of vulgarity then I'd say you've missed much of the point - and they're extremely funny.

I disagree that Cook felt "stabbed in the back".
I think Cooks problem was that he knew he had brought it all on himself and yet could still not bring himself to do anything about it - hence the on-going ascerbic and cruel comments etc etc.

I think Cook understood very well his flaws and hated them in himself but was powerless to do anything much about them
(his family background is touched upon and I'd guess distant and dysfunctional parents didn't help his poor ability to show warmth and love at those times when it would have brought great healing to those he had hurt).

In some respects I think it's fair to say one of Cook's biggest problems was having it all too soon.
At 30 he had done most of his best work, perhaps he felt or knew that and dreaded the plateau followed by the reverse slope (hating failure as he did).

He's a little like another icon of his time, George Best.
So many have wished George didn't live the lifestyle he did and 'ruin' his talent.
I suspect characters like Cook and Best are only the talents they are becuase of their outrageous OTT and (probably what would be to the rest of us mere mortals) dangerous behaviour.

I just thank God to have been around to have seen them and enjoyed them sharing their talent with the rest of us.

God bless you both Pete and Dud and thank you for all that helpless laughter.

[deleted]

I did like the film because it has shown how Peter Cook was, how he fascinated people and yet the other "dark" side of him, how he treated people - especially his wife and Dudley.

But people who adore and love his comedy and his style surely do not wish to know all this. He may have been a comedy genius, but he did all the things shown in the film and maybe even far worse things than that. But as the film is mainly focused on the life of Peter, one does not get to know Dudley .. and i found it rather sad that they have not told his story!
But of course, people in Britain (as the TV Production was produced in Britain) are mostly interested in Peter Cook - not Dudley Moore! (shame!)

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