An article by Helen Lewis in the New Statesman pays a very brief tribute to Peter Cook and notes his influence on British comedy. It also mentions a key difference between Cook and a lot of contemporary political satirists: Richard Ingrams once described Peter Cook as a “conservative anarchist” - he had the rare ability to mock the powerful without alienating them: both Harold Macmillan and the Queen came to see Beyond the Fringe, for all that it was supposed to be a scandalous youth phenomenon. Cook never subscribed to the idea that comedy could change the world, either, comparing the opening of the Establishment club in 1961 to “those wonderful Berlin cabarets … which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler”.

An article by Helen Lewis in the New Statesman pays a very brief tribute to Peter Cook and notes his influence on British comedy. It also mentions a key difference between Cook and a lot of contemporary political satirists:

Richard Ingrams once described Peter Cook as a “conservative anarchist” - he had the rare ability to mock the powerful without alienating them: both Harold Macmillan and the Queen came to see Beyond the Fringe, for all that it was supposed to be a scandalous youth phenomenon. Cook never subscribed to the idea that comedy could change the world, either, comparing the opening of the Establishment club in 1961 to “those wonderful Berlin cabarets … which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler”.

Notes

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