News about Peter Cook

Some years before I was born, Peter Cook wrote one of the best known and funniest sketches of all time. It concerned a one-legged man, played by Dudley Moore, auditioning for the role of Tarzan. Beautifully crafted, part of its humour lay in the gentle but painstaking logic deployed by the auditioner to suggest to the candidate that he may not be ideal for the part. It was also absurd in the extreme - therefore hilarious - to imagine that a 'unidexter' was sufficiently deluded to suppose the audition might work out for him. The late Cook described it as one of the most perfect sketches he had acted in. I concur, but I have lived to see things he hasn't. I've lived to see comedy such as this sourly characterised as 'ableist'. It is now no longer impossible to imagine a casting director giving serious thought to offering the Tarzan role to a one-legged man - or even woman.

Overview

Are Oxford and Cambridge really better than every other British university? How do the likes of Leeds, Manchester and Bristol compare? And what about up-and-coming institutions such as the University of Leicester? Today, we publish The Mail University Guide rankings for 2025 - and there are some big surprises in the results. Our guide is the most comprehensive, broadly based, in-depth analysis of the UK's leading universities you'll find. The Mail ranking is based on recent performance data in areas such as teaching and research, as well as the views of the 346,000 final-year students. Plus, we've crunched the numbers to identify universities where students stand the best chance of getting a high-skilled job when they graduate, the salaries they will earn (useful for paying off that student loan) and whether they feel, 15 months after leaving, that their careers are on track.

Arts University Bournemouth

When was it - 1981, maybe? My manager, the redoubtable Peter Bennett-Jones, was talking to a person organising a concert to 'Stop Sizewell B'. This zealot wanted me and my TV partner, Mel 'Smudger' Smith, to appear at his event and use our celebrity wattage - our TV sketch show Not The Nine O'Clock News was riding high in the ratings - to whip up opposition to the Suffolk nuclear plant.

If you're looking for some brilliant TV shows to watch this weekend, look no further. From a highly unusual music documentary about a star whose career is threatened by a neurological disease to a quick-fire newsroom satire that becomes darker and twistier, there is something to suit every taste. Our critics have picked out the must-watch movies, as well as laugh-out-loud comedy shows and series. Read on to find the perfect show to get your teeth into this weekend.

Only a comedy connoisseur would have the nerve. Paul Whitehouse, star of The Fast Show and now Gone Fishing, dared to say it - Benny Hill was brilliantly funny. In the first episode of his Sketch Show Years, harking back to the 1970s, he paid tribute to beloved double acts: Morecambe and Wise, The Two Ronnies, and Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Acknowledged geniuses such as Les Dawson and the Python troupe were included too, though the selection was too predictable - the dead parrot, conductor Andrew Preview, fork handles and Bloody Greta Garbo all featured. But the real fun started when Paul dared to reassess the comedians that political correctness cancelled. He took a nostalgic joy in reminding us of Dick Emery's favourite characters - Honky-Tonks mincing in his silks and extravagant hats, and saucy Mandy dispatching every suitor with a shove: 'Ooh, you are awful . . . but I like you!'

Modern mums and dads, bored youngsters in a rural village or unlikely flatmates in their twenties, there are plenty of quirky characters to get to know in classic TV sitcoms. So our critics have selected some of the best of them to watch On Demand right now - sifting through hundreds of options to save you the bother. Can't decide what to watch tonight? Read on to find out which sitcoms will keep you laughing...

The BT Tower's transformation into a luxurious hotel in London is only the latest in the city's colourful 60-year history. The looming structure, which opened in 1966 as the Post Office Tower, ruled London for 14 years, most notably hosting Billy Butlin's revolving restaurant. It survived a terrorist bomb attack in 1971, which thankfully saw no one dead, as well as the development of a huge cat in The Goodies' 1970s parody of King Kong.

For those, being a royal may not be the most demanding career in the country, and it does not come with many perks, such as the use of palaces and priceless jewelry. However, a number of royals have skills on the other hand, away from their public-facing positions. These royals have extra jobs, from truck driving to selling artwork for huge sums of money. Zara Tindall's efforts at riding, which have resulted in her winning an Olympic medal among other accolades, are among the most coveted of these talents. Here, FEMAIL looks at some of the most talented royals, and you should be surprised by at least a couple of them (inset: Queen Margrethe II); King Charles; Prince Albert.

Christie Brinkley, 70, turned 70 on Friday. On social media, her children were able to wish her a happy birthday. Alexa Ray Joel with Billy Joel, Jack Brinkley Cook with Richard Taubman and Sailor Brinkley Cook with Peter Cook, and Sama Ray Joel with Billy Joel. Last week, the Vacation actress talked about how she has been able to keep her youthful appearance all these decades after fame peaked in the 1970s. The beauty talked to People, saying she is fine with having a few lines here and there, and also revealing that she has tried Botox in the past but is not keen on doing too much to her face. The magazine also focuses on how to appear fabulous while allowing herself to age naturally. I want to hide those wrinkles.' That's the way I'm approaching aging,' said the former Vogue cover girl. People get older and they overdo it, so they get waxy and - I'm not sure if the word is preserved or something.' I want a little life to show on my face, you know?'

QUENTIN LETTS: Hawkish eyeballs swivelled in watery sockets and age, with rattly chests inflated with indignation. The latest Rwanda Bill had been debating in the Upper House by the time. Yes, they did have a wrathful deposition of their lordships if wheezy conniptions. We were facing Nazism at the time. It was the end of British oxygen. One chap even said that if the Bill were passed, we'll be living in a different place and breathing a different atmosphere.' Lord Hennessy (Crossbencher) sank to his red leather bench, apparently struggling with sobs, after which he was almost overcome with sobs. He had to be given a consoling pat by a chum. The very oxygen of England would be tarnished? They will be pushed into the abyss from the sounds of some peers' lungs. And yet these Bill opponents simultaneously protested that it was insignificant. When not feeling emotion, the old gaspers were giggling at the Government's uselessness. In a manner that comedian Peter Cook used for nerds, a man dressed in a dress near the Throne began wheedling in a man in a wheedling voice. On a closer look, the Archbishop of Canterbury came to announce that the Bill's supporters were rotters and Antichrists.

Christie Brinkley, a vacation singer, has a youthful glow to her. While at fashion designer Donna Karan's New Year's Eve beach party, the 69-year-old New Yorker looks so young that she could pass for the sister of her young daughter Sailor, 25. And though Christie will turn 70-year-old in a month, they seemed to be around the same age. When she wrapped her arms around the child whose pop is Peter Cook, she stood out in a red gown.

EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Scooby Doo, who is still knotted over what may or may not have been in the Dutch version of Endgame, is facing more embarrassment after naming Charles and Kate in a first faux pas. This has not been repeated in any other edition of the book, as in the cack-handed mention of the King and the Princess of Wales. Scooby continues to skate on thin ice, with lawyers only too keen to pounce.

Feeding Creativity is McCartney's third book of vegetarian recipes; she and her fashion designer sister Stella co-created one; Vegetarianism used to be the favored cause of cranks and sandal-wearing lefties, but it has long since gone mainstream, and veggie cookbooks have topped the bestseller list.

Christie, the self-proclaimed "queen of the Hamptons" and a 69-year-old supermodel, has given fans an inside look at her stunning $30 million 'castle', which features its own tower. Caleb Simpson, 31, a blonde beauty, gave TikTok actor Caleb Simpson, 31, a tour of her sprawling Sag Harbor home where she has lived for 24 years, discovering new living spaces in New York City and around the world. Christie displayed her stunning 20-acre home, which has six bedrooms and five-and-a-half bathrooms in the main house, as well as two bedrooms and two bathrooms in the guest house.

Cosmo's parents immigrated to London in 1964, just at the start of a swinging London. They bought a four-story terraced Georgian house in Islington, North London, for about £10,000. 'It was a complete dump that, under my parents' influence, became a vibrant dump with character,' he says. Fran Fran to his mother Fran in the living room and the kitchen to the right. Photographed inset: The demolished piano that once graced Cosmo's parents' wall is now on view at Tate Britain.

Princess Beatrice Mozzi's former secondary Radley College was rated as the best public school by the British society, although St Hugh's in Oxfordshire was rated for top preparations. Parents pay £16,025 a term and Radley College, which is also located in Oxfordshire, boasts an on-campus art gallery as well as extra-curricular activities ranging from opera appreciation to wine tasting and flight simulation. Brighton College, Sussex, was a shortlist that included the prestigious college. The school is the most expensive in the UK at £65,000 per year for a complete sixth-form boarder. Here, FEMAIL reveals the schools that came out as the best in the class - and those that were nominated in the competitions.

Parents want to be sure that their children are in the right hands as the new school year begins and parents are planning to drop their children off. Tatler's society bible has ranked the nation's best prep and public schools, and they come at a hefty price. These organizations have produced some outstanding alumni, including Princess Beatrice's husband Edoardo Mozzi, and late comedian Peter Cook, who both attended Radley College. Charles Darwin, one of the world's most respected biologists, walked through Shrewsbury School's halls aged nine. FEMAIL announces the following schools that have been nominated by Tatler as the best in the class...

Arts University Bournemouth

GRIFF RHYS JONES: Last week, I was actually surprised when an old friend called me out of the blue to say that it had been ten years since Mel Smith died. I don't mean I was surprised he was in touch. He didn't want me to go and lay a wreath or something. I couldn't believe it was ten years since July 2013, on a day just like this, with wood pigeons practising their school recorder scales outside, Jo Johnson dropped her voice in the room next door and started saying things like, 'Om, I'm so sorry to hear that...' and 'if there is anything we can do...' I was still sneaking out to join the wood pigeons.' It was the surprising revelation that we had all been half-expecting. Mel was dead. It was a heart attack in his sleep after a rough stretch of illness. He was 60 years old.

TOM UTLEY: On a jam-packed overnight flight from London Heathrow to New Delhi, the most difficult ride of my life I spent squashed in economy class with two hugely obese passengers. An American woman who is described as a "plus-size travel influencer" is campaigning to ensure airlines provide free extra seats to passengers of her large numbers of passengers, who normally take up two or three per cent. Evidently, it's a question of human rights. All I'm saying is that Jaelynn should accept her personal responsibility for her enormous height and acknowledge that she might do something about it if only she bothered to it.

When performing on stage, he disguised as a dustman, survived being hit by a bus and emerged with a 2:2 degree. King Charles' time at the University of Cambridge was certainly memorable, but it was also disappointing academically. Prince of Wales, who first studied archaeology and anthropology before moving to history, was at Cambridge from 1967 to 1970, becoming the first heir apparent to earn a degree. Charles' bodyguard, who was expected to attend all of his lectures, passed the same exams and received a higher mark, according to an unproven legend of his time in the museum. Despite the truth of the allegation, Charles later stated that he 'enormously' enjoyed his time at Cambridge, which included his appearance in the famous Footlights (left, dressed as a dustman). During a return to the city in 2016, Charles stunned an audience by announcing that he was struck by a bus while riding his bike as a student and admitting that he had no idea how he had survived. Photographed: Charles as an undergraduate in 1969 (right); then Prince of Wales cooking in his house (inset top); Charles out on his bike (inset bottom).

Barry Humphries has certainly written some amazing stories about the British royal family to chasing Kylie Minogue off stage after nearly 70 years in showbusiness. The Australian comedy hero, who died after complications from hip surgery, had an eclectic group of friends from Peter Cook to Salvador Dali and The Beatles. Humphries was both 'the most influential comedian to appear since Charlie Chaplin' and 'the most influential artistic figure of our time,' according to biographer Anne Pender.