In a new series of special profiles David Dimbleby talks to eight well-known men and women who have set out to change the world in which they live. 5: Peter Cook
PETER COOK is thought by many to be the most original comic genius of his generation. Back in the late 1950s, his sketches of Pieces of Eight and Beyond the Fringe marked the beginning of a new kind of British comedy - a combination of insane fantasy and sharp observation - which inspired the satire boom of the 1960s, That Was The Week That Was and the comic madness of Monty Python 's Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers.
' Peter Cook ', says JOHN CLEESE , 'opened the gate into the field where we all now frolic.'
Yet, despite the success of his own E. L. Whisty and Dud and Pete with DUDLEY MOORE , he is probably less well-known to the public than many of his successors.
Editor JOHN SHEARER
Producer JOHN PERCIVAL Director ROY CHAPMAN BBC Bristol