The Satire Boom of the Sixties

The Edinburgh festival organisers had become fed up with the fringe events taking away the audiences from the 'festival proper'. To beat the fringe at their own game, they decided to invite the top amateur comic talents from the two chief British universities, Oxford and Cambridge, to perform in a show. From Oxford came northerner Alan Bennett and Essex lad Dudley Moore. From Cambridge came Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook. Their teaming was a joining of very different personalities, backgrounds and styles but they were united by comedy and the ability to invent, produce and perform brilliant satire. They took the fringe, London's west end and later New York's Broadway by storm.

The success lasted for a year or two until internal pressures within the group forced a split. Bennett and Miller pursued highly successful and brilliant careers as writers and producers and, in the case of Miller, a highly-respected and influential doctor and philosopher. The success of Bennett and Miller continues to this day. Meanwhile, after mixed fortunes with a London comedy club and satirical magazine (The Establishment club and Private Eye), and having seen 'rival' David Frost capitalise on the satire boom that he had created, Cook teamed-up with Moore again for the BBC in a new show. Not Only, But Also actually started life as a vehicle for Moore and his musical/comic talents but, having invited Cook as a guest on the first show, the producers soon realised that the duo were a pairing made in heaven with a natural chemistry. Born to a working-class family, the short, club-footed and reticent Moore was seemingly the antithesis of Cook. Peter was tall and outwardly confident and charismatic.

Cook had been born to a middle-class family, although for most of his youth he had been separated from his parents who had worked overseas. So although the two seemed as different as chalk and cheese, in reality there were many similarities between them. They both were basically shy and had used comedy as a shield. Both were highly ambitious. However, when it came to the writing, Cook took the lead and Moore, at least for the time being, was happy to play the subordinate role.

Stars were soon begging to appear on the show. John Lennon appeared at his own request twice, Peter Sellers also invited himself onto the programme. The opening credits were always different and always elaborate, one week the titles were painted on the deck of an aircraft carrier and another they would be dangling between the halves of Tower Bridge. The regular and most popular comic inventions were E. L. Wisty, a rambling bore with a monotone voice who related inaccurate facts and figures at length to his victims and Pete and Dud, a pair of half-wits who had foolish but hilarious opinions on the arts, religion, sex and the great issues. These characters became national institutions throughout the sixties in Britain. As is so often the case, Cook had actually based these characters on observations of real people in his life.

Superthunderstingcar - a sketch parodying the puppet shows of Gerry Anderson

Pete: Do you know that we're all in line for succession to the throne?

Dud: Really?

Pete: Well, if forty-eight million, two hundred thousand, seven hundred and one people died, I'd be Queen.

Cook: You know, I go to the theatre to be entertained. I don't want to see plays about rape, sodomy and drug addiction. I can get all that at home.

At the start of his career, Peter applied to the actor's union for membership. They wrote back telling him he would have to change his name as there was a Peter Coke and this might cause some confusion. The regulations were very strict in this regard. Peter wrote to them saying that in future he would be known as Xavier Blancmange to which the union replied that this was a silly name. He then suggested Wardrobe Gruber and Sting Thundercock. He never heard from the union on the subject again.

(Peter) My Mother was a saint. Whenever I think of my dear mother I have an abiding image of a small, kindly, plump, grey-haired lady pottering at the sink. "Get away from that bloody sink," my mother would yell at her, "and get out of my kitchen you awful plump little kindly woman!" We never found out who she was.

Dudley (on how he 'nearly died at three', having gone blue and no experts could find out what had gone wrong): Then they suddenly discovered the cause of it. It was the fact that my father had been holding me underwater for ten minutes.

Tailor (Dudley): Which side do you dress?

Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling (Peter): Nearest the window.

The brilliant and hilarious Cook 'established' London's The Establishment comedy club & Private Eye magazine and the 'fringe foursome' were being referred to as 'The Beatles of comedy'. Out of this environment came the idea of a BBC producer, Ned Sherrin, to bring satire to the viewing masses. He hired David Frost, a contemporary and admirer of Cook's at Cambridge, to front the new show. TW3 lampooned politics and religion as well as established attitudes and had huge viewing figures. It was so powerful, it could make or break careers and it was so popular that the establishment were seriously worried and tried various ways to minimise the impact of this menace, including censorship. Finally, in an election year, enough pressure was put on the BBC and the series was cancelled. In an atmosphere where J. F. Kennedy had just died and Harold Wilson was a clear leader in the UK elections, there was probably little room for satirical comedy any more anyway.

What brought an end to the Satire Boom? Well, too much satire probably. It just went out of fashion, not really to return until Not The Nine O'clock News and Spitting Image in the 80s and 90s. As The Goons did before it, TW3 left a huge legacy for British comedy and influenced and inspired many more recent talents. David Frost became a jet-setting talk/chat show host and interviewer and producer, Willy Rushton continued on Peter Cook's Private Eye and became a tv favourite, Kenneth Cope ended-up as TV ghost Marty Hopkirk, Lance Percival appeared in numerous tv and film comedy roles and Roy Kinnear continued with a very successful career as a comedy actor until his untimely death. Millicent Martin was extremely popular with the cast and much admired for her ability to learn songs and lyrics at very short notice. She went on to have a very successful career as an actress in films like Alfie as well as a popular songstress.

Looking at the few remaining films of TW3 today, (some intelligent and forward-thinking archiving meant that a lot of the shows, and a big part of British comedy history, were destroyed) the topical humour does not travel well and the style seems dated, but the programme was perfect for the time and a real milestone.

What is clear is that the Python team and most comedians and comedy writers since owe a big debt of gratitude to the Beyond The Fringe team, and to Cook and Moore in particular, for their inspiration and comedic groundwork.

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