Tragically I Was an Only Twin

Every generation seems to have its breakthrough comedy. For some it was The Goons, for others Monty Python. In the late 1950s and early '60s, it was the satire boom begun by the Beyond The Fringe Oxbridge troupe of Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett. The most acerbic and self-confident of the group, Cook was generally seen as the genius, despite Bennett's later pre-eminence as the country's foremost man of letters or Miller's polymathic energy, or even Moore's energy and jazz skills. In those early days, Cook's self-confidence led him to write sketches which had shafts of genuine brilliance running through them. He went on to form the Establishment, a satirical comedy club, and was the saviour of Private Eye. The creator of legendary comic character E L Wisty and the brilliantly self-deluding duo of Pete and Dud (and their foul-mouthed alter egos, Derek and Clive), there is no doubting Cook's comic talents. And, by all accounts, he was superb company, his best jokes and routines told in pubs, bars and dinner parties to the smug few who were his audiences. But this book leaves the nagging feeling of a talent allowed to wither on the vine. William Cook has collated a pretty thorough overview - from adolescent doodlings which should have remained hidden, through to the genius of Beyond the Fringe and the excellent work he performed with Moore. E L Wisty, on the other hand, needs performing not reading, and Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling, great though he is, doesn't bear the repetition he gets here. And the work Cook did for the Daily Mail should be buried deep under the sea. From then on, the occasional piece that works shines more brightly than it should, though we end with a piece of melancholic brilliance which Cook performed unannounced on a late-night radio phone-in: Sven the morose Norwegian, obsessed with fish and his on-off relationship with Jutta, his wife. The fact that Cook did not spend his life performing for the public is a tragedy for the public rather than Cook - he knew he had reached the heights. This book is a reminder both of how high he could go, and of how rarely he bothered to do so. (Kirkus UK)