Dudley Moore and Peter Cook = Derek and Clive

Last night Channel 4 gave me an hour of sure-fire joy with a documentary with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore: The Missing Sketches was screened at 8pm. Rob Brydon gave us and celebrity fans, and friends a chance to see these newly found selection of sketches of the duo. The BBC wiped most of ‘Not Only but Also’ TV series back in the 1970s but two shows were saved in of all places at the ABC Australian Broadcaster where they were found.

Although the duo, were fun in any performance, it was their portrayal of Derek and Clive I remember most and the album Derek and Clive ‘live’. I was 16, maybe 17 when I first heard the recording and to say I was taken aback was an underestimation, with a big wow. It was liken to gold dust being passed around and more precious than any teenager’s porn stash

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Brought up on comedies such as ‘The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin’ and ‘Ripping Yarns’ this was beyond knuckle stuff. Listening to this misogynistic, homophobic, which contains some vicious swearing and contains a fair amount of drunken abuse it possibly the funniest thing I've ever heard

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Kicking off in fine style with the hilarious tale of Clive's worst job ever. The job entailed the recovery of lobsters from the a**hole of the American actress Jean Mansfield. Doesn’t sound overly funny but it is the interaction between Cook and Moore that adds the laughter. Derek claiming his worst job was cleaning up Winston Churchill's bogeys (leading the pair to conclude that the Titanic was one such bogey).

The track like ‘This Bloke Came Up To Me’ could have seen me in the confessional box for days if I was caught by a parent. Remember seeing pictures of French people gathered around the radio during World War 2 listening quietly to the BBC. Well that was what it was like in our front room with me with the sound up as much as I dared. It is a vehicle to say “You f**king c**t”, umpteen times although the word c**t seems to be a favourite of theirs as we hear it throughout the album.

I would say hand on heart if you haven’t heard or seen Derek and Clive you haven’t lived. Below is a link to the ‘This Bloke Came Up To Me’ and if you are of a mind the full album is on YouTube.