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DVD Description
"The funniest man who ever drew breath." – Stephen Fry on Peter Cook.
"Like many smallish men (Napoleon, Adolf Hitler to name but two) Dudley has a superficial charm and warmth that deceives many." – Peter Cook on Dudley Moore.
In 1965 the BBC harnessed the talents of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore for a new show, Not Only But Also. Building scripts from improvised recordings (although ad-libs and corpsing remained irresistible features of the final recordings), the young partnership created their own style of comedy including the memorable Dagenham Dialogues of the cloth-capped Pete and Dud, and Peter Cook’s magnificent old duffer Sir Arthur Greeb-Streebling. The series continued until 1970 and remains a seminal landmark in TV comedy. Many of Cook and Moore’s best sketches are captured here, including 5-4-3-2-1 …, the Superthunderstingraycars, the Leaping Nuns, The Glidd of Glood, Bo Dudley and the Goodbye-ee song.
Special Features
- Sketch selection
DVD Technical Information:
- Subtitles: English SDH
- Audio: Mono
- Disc Format: DVD-5
- PAL
- Region Code: 2 and 4
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
179 of 181 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
...why do BBC Video keep on screwing up their classic comedy DVDs? Their Hancock DVD included five episodes from his last TV series for the Beeb but inexplicably omitted the sixth, Son and Heir (his last for the BBC). They put the pilot episode for Porridge not on series one but on series two. Their Very Best of Dad's Army discs have lost an episode each in the transfer from their video releases, while even their extras are edited versions. They heavily cut the last series of The Fast Show. And while US customers have been able to enjoy Monty Python's Flying Circus in its entirety for years, we have to put up with mediocre compilations.
That this disc continues the ignoble tradition should come as no great surprise. After all, the BBC wiped most of the episodes of 'Not Only, But Also' years ago, and it's a habit they obviously can't get out of. While the surviving episodes were broadcast in their entirety a decade or so ago, these were edited as one 100-minute programme for a video release as 'The Best of What's Left of Not Only But Also.' When it was reissued again with remade credits as 'The Classic Peter Cook and Dudley Moore,' they actually cut out even more material - in this case a not particularly funny but visually amazing sequence on London's Tower Bridge. Naturally, the sequence is missing on the DVD - as are any extras (and the BBC produced some superb tributes to Cook after his death that would have made ideal companion pieces).
There is a brief introductory sketch with Cook and Moore shot for the first video that is uncomfortable viewing - there's more of the vitriol and barely repressed hatred of Derek ands Clive than the charming matter of fact delusion of the pair at their prime - but otherwise the Beeb haven't even bothered to include the pair's brief but amusing video sleeve notes. Even the transfer quality disappoints: the colour sequences are an improvement on the video issues, but the black and white ones are not quite as sharp. Obviously the BBC's restoration budget is reserved for Doctor Who.
There are many great sketches here - including the spot-on Superthunderstingcar, the facts of life, the head-to-heads and the leaping nuns of St Beryl - but there are some inexplicable omissions: how can you have a disc calling itself 'The Best of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore' without the unidexter Tarzan audition? Another disappointing and criminally lazy disc from the BBC comedy collection, redeemed only by the genius of the material. This could and should have been a great disc. As it is, it's definitely worth buying, but you might want to write a letter of complaint to the BBC once you've seen it in the vain hope of stopping them mucking up the next comedy classic they release.
66 of 67 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
...why do BBC Video keep on screwing up their classic comedy DVDs? Their Hancock DVD included five episodes from his last TV series for the Beeb but inexplicably omitted the sixth, Son and Heir (his last for the BBC). They put the pilot episode for Porridge not on series one but on series two. Their Very Best of Dad's Army discs have lost an episode each in the transfer from their video releases, while even their extras are edited versions. They heavily cut the last series of The Fast Show. And while US customers have been able to enjoy Monty Python's Flying Circus in its entirety for years, we have to put up with mediocre compilations.
That this disc continues the ignoble tradition should come as no great surprise. After all, the BBC wiped most of the episodes of 'Not Only, But Also' years ago, and it's a habit they obviously can't get out of. While the surviving episodes were broadcast in their entirety a decade or so ago, these were edited as one 100-minute programme for a video release as 'The Best of What's Left of Not Only But Also.' When it was reissued again with remade credits as 'The Classic Peter Cook and Dudley Moore,' they actually cut out even more material - in this case a not particularly funny but visually amazing sequence on London's Tower Bridge. Naturally, the sequence is missing on the DVD - as are any extras (and the BBC produced some superb tributes to Cook after his death that would have made ideal companion pieces).
There is a brief introductory sketch with Cook and Moore shot for the first video that is uncomfortable viewing - there's more of the vitriol and barely repressed hatred of Derek ands Clive than the charming matter of fact delusion of the pair at their prime - but otherwise the Beeb haven't even bothered to include the pair's brief but amusing video sleeve notes. Even the transfer quality disappoints: the colour sequences are an improvement on the video issues, but the black and white ones are not quite as sharp. Obviously the BBC's restoration budget is reserved for Doctor Who.
There are many great sketches here - including the spot-on Superthunderstingcar, the facts of life, the head-to-heads and the leaping nuns of St Beryl - but there are some inexplicable omissions: how can you have a disc calling itself 'The Best of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore' without the unidexter Tarzan audition? Another disappointing and criminally lazy disc from the BBC comedy collection, redeemed only by the genius of the material. This could and should have been a great disc. As it is, it's definitely worth buying, but you might want to write a letter of complaint to the BBC once you've seen it in the vain hope of stopping them mucking up the next comedy classic they release.
79 of 81 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This is a lazy production, a straightforward re-issue of a 90 minute video release that first appeared in 1990, with no attempt to include additional material. For example, the famous 1965 Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling sketch (about his fruitless attempts to teach ravens to fly underwater) still exists, has been shown on TV a number of times in recent years but has not been included here. With a bit of effort and archive research, the BBC could have provided rather more Cook & Moore material than they have bothered to include.
So, magnificent so far as it goes, but something of a missed opportunity.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Best of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore DVD
Just as i remember them as a kid from the TV series! The sketches i remember best from my youth are on the DVD (the reason i bought the DVD) it was the "Thunderbirds"(Thundercar)... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Clive of
Am I missing something?
Not complete rubbish but very close to it! Apart from there little chats in the Pub and the Zoo the rest is JUST NOT FUNNY! Save your money, this is tosh.
Published on 15 Nov 2007 by Soapy Tyler
i think pete and dud would have been disappointed....
i think pete and dud would have been disappointed....
having recently read through a number of their scripts i thought i would see them put them into action - only to... Read more
having recently read through a number of their scripts i thought i would see them put them into action - only to... Read more
Published on 29 Aug 2007 by Mr. Simon H. C. Wilson
Could have been so much better
This DVD gets off to a storming start with a fantastic sketch about Pete and Dud reuniting, twenty years after their last meeting. Read more
Published on 22 Jan 2004 by Mr. John Phillips
Classic Comedy doesn't come better than this!
In the sixties Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were at the height of their inventive powers and this DVD provides you with the best of what's left of Not Only But Also. Read more
Published on 5 Oct 2003
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