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Slightly off-topic, but I went to see a rehearsed reading of a play about Peter Cook a while ago, which heavily stressed the sad clown/tortured genius angle. Interestingly, in the Q&A session at the end, it turned out that someone in the audience had been a theatrical agent in the sixties and seventies, and so knew quite a few of the leading comedy lights of the time. He said that while most of what you hear about the Carry On team is basically accurate, Peter Cook had always seemed to him to be a perfectly affable character, not noticably troubled by anything much. Arguably, Peter Cook could just have been better at hiding his demons than, say, Kenneth Williams was, but then again, why would he bother? The Derek and Clive stuff in particular doesn't seem like the work of a man who was interested in keeping up appearances.
So it can be overstated, the tears of a clown thing.
That said, by all accounts Hughie Green was a monster, so that show should be interesting at least. And David 'How Not To Behave If You're Famous' Walliam's take on Frankie Howard might be worth watching for the horror buzz, if not much else. |
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