TV 'spoilt our tribute to Peter'

Terry Jones has criticised last year's West End tribute to Peter Cook, even though he directed it.

He says the influence of TV cameras transformed the show into the sort of glitzy showbiz bash Cook would have ridiculed.

"It turned out we'd been hijacked," he says in a new edition of the Peter Cook fanzine Publish And Bedazzled. "There was a feeling of resentment. It was one of those moments when I almost gave up.

"It went all upbeat. I'd have presented it as more a intellectual satire show.

"There was nervousness among the players about the Cook sketches coming over. Dom Joly was rather uncomofrable as he was given Dudley's part as one-legged Tarzan. But I don't think he had ever seen it.

Jones also took part in a similar tribute to Spike Milligan, which wasn't without its problems, either.

"It was fun but strange doing Spike sketches with people like Harry Thing [Enfield] who'd never heard any Goon Shows," he said.

The new edition of Publish And Bedazzled also includes forgotten material from Not Only.. But Also, Peter Cook & Co and Private Eye, an interview with Bryan Forbes, who directed Peter and Dudley in The Wrong Box and a transcript of Cook's interview with Russell Harty.

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To buy Peter Cook: APosthumorous Tribute on DVD

Published: 20 May 2003