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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Whats the worst job you ever had? - Derek and Clive comedy stuff

00:25 / 17.11.05

Not sure if this subject has been mentioned before, im new here, but
- what do you all think of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's naughty 70's versions
DEREK AND CLIVE?

I love them to bits, to the point that I slip into their voices/swearing at every opportunity.

A guy gave me their albums for free at a car boot sale in Edinburgh in 1992, saying
" Here, take these will you, pal? - if i bring them home again, my wife will kill me!"

How could I resist an intro like that!

boychild,
With my new catch phrase via the comic book forum: "Excellent"

02:14 / 17.11.05

I wish I could see the Derek and Clive stuff. "Bedazzled" is one of my all time favorite films, but unfortunately that's all I've even seen of them as a pair.

I once came across one of their comedy records in a shop in Greenwich Village, but it was out of my price range.

07:01 / 17.11.05

I dunno, I tend to prefer the not only, but also stuff (very little of which remains) - The derek and clive stuff was less funny and more vicious- with quite a bit of it aimed at making Moore uncomfortable... But i guess a large part of cook was a brilliant, bitter, vicious man.

09:07 / 17.11.05

I love Derek and Clive to pieces, but to my mind the 'not only but also' stuff is the best-the sketch with Dud as the miserable father, and Pete as the swinging 60s boutique owner is just wonderful.

Boychild, have you heard the "Why bother" record Cook did with Chris Morris of Brass Eye fame in the early 90s? It's wonderful improv. with Pete as sir Arthur Greeb-Stribling (or is it the other way round) being interviewed on such topics as the LA riots, prison, the re-animated infant christ, and strangulation.

At times the tables are very much turned on Cook, and the comic chemistry is flawless.

02:23 / 28.11.05

- Sleezenation (im intriqued as to who you are now, you person of good taste)

Derek and Clive is indeed 'iffy' to say the least - there are bits which are outrageously sexist and racist... and though Cook probably didnt mean any of it seriously (did he?) , its contentious stuff clearly. If you have ever seen the video of the making of the later Derek and Clive stuff, it is clear that Cook and Moore are not getting on that well. The visuals of the two of them put over a mood of desperation and unpleasantness that doesnt come over in the records so much - its better just to hear it.

BUT above all... the Derek and Clive stuff on those records just make me laugh!
- Ive no excuses, it just DOES - im helpless in laughter at some bits of it. In a way that 'Not only, but also' doesnt do so much, though I really like that stuff also.

I do know the 'Why bother' stuff too, thanks other commentator. I enjoy it tremendously in a more calm fashion. Clever stuff. Im glad that Cook managed to do such darker, kind of self-reflective parody in his last few years.

I recently read Alan Moore interviewing Brian Eno, saying that when David Bowie and Eno meet they fall into an allmost continous Derek and Clive impersonation!
" Funny how the ambience follows you round the room" as Moore commented.

So, with all the dignity I can muster, I say to you: "Excellent!"