'Genius is torture'

Cook's wife breaks her silence

Peter Cook's first wife spoken for the first time about the alcoholism and depression that destroyed his talent.

"He really suffered," Wendy Cook said. "Nobody as sensitive as he was could help but suffer. Genius is also torture."

Wendy, the mother of the comedian's two children, broke her silence for a BBC1 documentary At A Slight Angle to the Universe - which also uncovered rare footage of the comedian at work.

And in an interview with the Observer today, she says regrets not being able to help Peter's drift into alcoholism.

Their relationship broke down in the mid-Sixties, when she fled the media spotlight, and he had an affair with Judy Huxtable, the actress who would become his second wife

"I left to live in Majorca because I didn't like the media world in London," Wendy said. "And, of course, if you just go and leave an attractive and brilliant man alone, it is pretty obvious that something is going to happen.

"It is pointless to have regrets, but I do wish I could have been wiser. I could have behaved differently, particularly as young children were involved."

It was the children - Lucy, now a 37-year-old aromatherapist, and Daisy, a 36-year-old artist - who persuaded Wendy to take part in the TV project. "It did start to excavate the memories," she said.

But Wendy doesn't think any of Cook's wives were the love of his life. "I think Peter loved Dudley more than anyone else in his life," she said.

The BBC documentary also unearthed the only known recording of Peter Cook's disastrous chat show. Where Do I Sit? was pulled after only three episodes in 1973 after being mauled by the critics.

Friends, including former Python Eric Idle, blame the press for Cook's downfall "The critics said he wasted his life," Idle said. "In fact, they tried to waste him."

The Observer interview