Peter Cook

:This article is about the British comedian Peter Cook. For other people called Peter Cook, see Peter Cook (disambiguation).

Consequences

Some fans feel that one of Cook's best comedy projects in the Seventies, that is unfortunately little known today, was his tour de force performance playing multiple roles on the 1976 concept album Consequences, written and produced by former 10CC members Kevin Godley and Lol Crème.

Related Topics:
10CC - Kevin Godley - Lol Crème

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A mixture of spoken-word comedy and progressive rock music with an environmental subtext, Consequences started out as a single that Godley and Creme planned to make to demonstrate their new invention, an electric guitar effect called The Gizmo. The project gradually grew into a triple LP boxed set. The comedy sections of the album were originally intended to be performed by an all-star cast including Spike Milligan and Peter Ustinov, but after meeting Peter Cook, Godley and Creme realised that he could perform most of the parts himself.

Related Topics:
Progressive rock - Environment - Electric guitar - The Gizmo - Spike Milligan - Peter Ustinov

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The storyline centres on the impending divorce of ineffectual Englishman Walter Stapleton (Cook) and his French wife Lulu (Judy Huxtable). While meeting with their respective lawyers – the bibulous Mr Haig and overbearing Mr Pepperman (both played by Cook) – the proceedings are interrupted by a series of bizarre and mysterious happenings that are somehow connected with Mr Blint (Cook), a musician and composer living in the apartment below Haig's office, and which is connected to it by a large hole in the floor.

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The hugely ambitious triple album was a total commercial failure and was savaged by the critics, but it gathered (and retains) a small but dedicated cult following. Interestingly, the script and storyline contain many elements that appear to parallel Cook's own life – his second wife, actress Judy Huxtable, plays Walter's wife Lulu; the voice and accent Cook used for the character of Walter are remarkably similar to that of Cook's former Beyond The Fringe colleague, Alan Bennett. Cook's own alcoholism is mirrored in Haig's constant drinking, and there is a clear parallel between the fictional divorce of Walter and Lulu and Cook's own messy divorce from his first wife Wendy.

Related Topics:
Judy Huxtable - Alan Bennett

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In June 1979 Cook performed at the Secret Policeman's Ball, the third of the almost-annual comedy galas for Amnesty International. Cook had also appeared in the first two shows in 1976 and 1977. A review of the first night of the four-night run in the Daily Telegraph complained that it was mostly recycled "Beyond the Fringe" and "Monty Python" material. This review appeared in print in the morning of the third of the four nights. As a response, for the third night Cook wrote and performed a savage satire of the shamefully biased summing-up by the Judge (Mr Justice Cantley) in the just-concluded trial of former Liberal party leader Jeremy Thorpe. The 9-minute piece was perhaps one of the finest works of Cook's career. It is considered a comedy classic by critics and fans alike. Cook and show producer Martin Lewis rushed out a recording of the track as a 12" single together with 3 specially-recorded additional tracks that further lampooned the Thorpe trial.

Related Topics:
1979 - Secret Policeman's Ball - Amnesty International - Jeremy Thorpe

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