History Creator / PeterCook

* PlayingAgainstType: His character of Lord Wexmire in the 1994 screen adaptation of ''Literature/BlackBeauty'' is a far more human, non-comedic character, less two-dimensional than his usual fair.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* TakeThatAudience: An odd variant; the pair indulge in this in the opening to Derek and Clive's ''Come Again'' record, mocking the listener for buying their record, that the listener's children will starve due to the wasted money, forcing the listener to endure periods of silence before promptly declaring that the listenr can't even return the item as they've likely gotten so angry they've thrown the record out the window.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: An odd variant; the pair indulge in this in the opening to Derek and Clive's 'Come Again' record, mocking the listener for buying their record, that the listener's children will starve due to the wasted money, forcing the listener to endure periods of silence before promptly declaring that the listenr can't even return the item as they've likely gotten so angry they've thrown the record out the window.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: ''Derek and Clive'' chose to carpet-bomb the radar with so much crap it overloaded and gave up.

* SchoolNewspaperNewsHound; Cook developed his talent for satirical comedy when he edited the school newspaper at Shrewsbury School, always trying to slip in scurrilous and potentially libellious snippets about his teachers, getting them past the radar of school censorship. This developed in later life into ''Magazine/PrivateEye''.

* TheReasonWhyYouSuckSpeech: An odd variant; the pair indulge in this in the opening to Derek and Clive's 'Come Again' record, mocking the listener for buying their record, that the listener's children will starve due to the wasted money, forcing the listener to endure periods of silence before promptly declaring that the listenr can't even return the item as they've likely gotten so angry they've thrown the record out the window.

* SchoolNewspaperNewsHound; Cook developed his talent for satirical comedy when he edited the school newspaper at Shrewsbury School, always trying to slip in scurrilous and potentially libellious snippets about his teachers, getting them past the radar of school censorship. This developed in later life into ''Magazine/PrivateEye''.

In 1993, he and Creator/ChrisMorris improvised a fantastically insane series of interviews for BBC Radio, ''Why Bother?'', in which Cook responded to Morris's characteristically aggressive style with increasingly absurd flights of imagination. Around the same time, Cook appeared in character as all four guests on the Channel 4 chat show ''Clive Anderson Talks Back'': Norman House, a meek quality controller who had been abducted by aliens; Alan Latchley, a bluff [[OopNorth Northern]] football manager[[note]]"Football is about nothing unless it is about something and what it is about is football!"[[/note]]; Sir James Beauchamp, a ridiculously bigoted upper-class judge[[note]]"Capital punishment's been abolished for some time now." "Yes it has. Except in my neck of the woods. It's very much an individual choice, I think, whether one executes."[[/note]] and Eric Daley, an egotistical but talentless veteran rock star[[note]]"I just got out of the Henry Ford clinic, and I'm -" "Henry Ford clinic?" "Yes." "Not the Betty Ford clinic?" "No, the Henry Ford one is a much tougher regime. You have to build a car before you're allowed out."[[/note]] The Clive Anderson appearance featured Cook at his best. However, the following year, the death of Cook's mother caused him to resume drinking heavily and he died in January 1995 from complications related to his alcoholism.

[[caption-width-right:350:Not Only, But Also: Peter Cook (left) with comic partner [[Creator/DudleyMoore Dud]]]]

Peter Edward Cook (17 November 1937 – 9 January 1995) was an English actor, satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, Cook is regarded as [[Magazine/PrivateEye the leading light]] of the [[Series/ThatWastheWeekThatWas British satire boom]] of the 1960s. He was closely associated with the anti-establishment comedy that emerged in Britain and the United States in the early 1960s. He was the proprietor of Magazine/PrivateEye from soon after its foundation until his death, and contributed both money and jokes to it throughout his life, while staunchly refraining from any [[ExecutiveMeddling editorial interference]]. An {{UsefulNotes/Oxbridge}} graduate, he formed a comic partnership with lifelong friend Creator/DudleyMoore which resulted in the hit revue ''Theatre/BeyondTheFringe'', and then their TV series ''Series/NotOnlyButAlso''; the film ''Film/Bedazzled1967'' (in its original 1967 version), and the notorious taboo-breaking ''Derek And Clive'' comedy albums. Whilst Moore [[BreakupBreakout went on to Hollywood superstardom]], [[LesserStar Cook languished in semi-obscurity]], a state not helped by the drinking problem that eventually killed him.