TV movie slammed again

Another of Peter Cook's ex-wives has criticised the movie of his life to be screened on Channel 4 this Christmas.

Judy Huxtable has slammed the film as a "distortion of the truth" just days after Cook's widow Lin slammed the way it portrayed the comic as a jealous, bitter, bad-tempered drunk.

Now Huxtable, his second wife, claims film-makers "have reduced a man known for his savage wit and brilliant observation to the level of a village idiot."

In an interview with today's Mail on Sunday, she claims there are several factual errors in the film Not Only, But Always, including one scene when she and Cook play 'strip conkers' and another when she strokes a bee Cook presented her as a love token.

The film also shows Cook being  handed the decree nisi from his first wife Wendy just before a showin New York, a pivotal moment at which Cook's drinking started spiralling out of control. But the papers actually came through while they were in Sydney.

But Huxtable added: "The worst thing was to see the ghastly, depressing caricature they have made of Peter.

"This is a Peter I barely recognise: a feckless, arrogant bully, bitterly jealous of Dudley Moore’s commercial success, incapable of emotional commitment and haunted by failure."

Not Only But Always, which stars Rhys Ifans and Cook and Aidan McArdle as Moore is to be screened on Channel 4 at 9pm on December 30.

Published: 5 Dec 2004