Pete and Dud, sometime in the early seventies, mutated into Derek and Clive, a pair of Tory-voting, heavy-drinking, football-loving toilet attendants who have an opinion on everything, think the world's gone mad and are deeply embarrassed by women. For Derek and Clive, everything went downhill after the death of Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper. And it's this peculiarly British mindset - a combination of drunken menace and a willingness to talk utter nonsense for several minutes at the drop of a hat - that the two erstwhile satirists tap into over the course of the three Derek and Clive albums. There are more 'real life' Dereks and Clives around than you might think. 'Come Again' is by far the most outrageous and offensive of the albums ('Ad Nauseum' tries hard, but feels disjointed and some of the ideas are non-starters) as the duo ruminate on cancer, masturbation, gay members of parliament, the genitalia of Hollywood stars, incest and the unfairness of the traffic laws. Although it's hard to choose, the most uproarious sketch is still 'My Mum Song' (a misleadingly twee title) in which Dudley Moore alternates between improvising an obscene ditty and collapsing into gibbering hysterics, and Peter Cook alternates between trying to restrain him and trying to make him laugh even harder (he succeeds). This was punk comedy a full five years before the Young Ones, and time has been kinder to it as well.
