Editing Dudley Moore (section)

===Partnership with Peter Cook===
Sir John Dankworth's trumpeter, Ron Simmonds,  rememered the duo playing in the intervals of the band's saturday night residency at the [[Marquee Club]] in 1961.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ron's Pages |url=http://www.jazzprofessional.com/ronspages/dankworth.htm |access-date=2025-04-19 |website=www.jazzprofessional.com}}</ref>   

When Moore returned to the UK he was offered his own series on the [[BBC]], ''[[Not Only... But Also]]'' (1965, 1966, 1970). It was commissioned specifically as a vehicle for Moore, but when he invited [[Peter Cook]] on as a guest, their [[double act|comedy partnership]] was so notable that it became a permanent fixture of the series. Cook and Moore are most remembered for their sketches as two working-class men, [[Pete and Dud]], in macs and cloth caps, commenting on politics and the arts, but they also fashioned a series of one-off characters, usually with Moore in the role of interviewer to one of Cook's upper-class eccentrics.

The pair developed an unorthodox method for scripting the material, using a tape recorder to tape an ad-libbed routine that they would then have transcribed and edited. This would not leave enough time to fully rehearse the script, so they often had a set of cue cards. Moore was famous for "[[corpsing]]" so, as the programmes often went out live, Cook would deliberately make him laugh in order to get an even bigger reaction from the studio audience. The BBC [[wiped]] much of the series, though some of the soundtracks (which were issued on LP record) have survived. In 1968 Cook and Moore briefly switched to [[Associated TeleVision|ATV]] for four one-hour programmes entitled ''[[Goodbye Again (TV)|Goodbye Again]]''; however, they were not as critically well-received as the BBC shows.

On film, Moore and Cook appeared in the 1966 British comedy film ''[[The Wrong Box]]'', before co-writing and co-starring in ''[[Bedazzled (1967 film)|Bedazzled]]'' (1967) with [[Eleanor Bron]].<ref name=la>{{cite web |url=http://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/dudley-moore/ |title=Hollywood Star Walk: Dudley Moore |work=Patrick Kevin Day, Los Angeles Times - Projects.LATimes.com |date=23 February 2010 |access-date=23 April 2016}}</ref> Set in [[Swinging London]] of the 1960s, ''Bedazzled'' was directed by [[Stanley Donen]]. The pair closed the decade with appearances in the ensemble caper film ''[[Monte Carlo or Bust]]'' and [[Richard Lester]]'s ''[[The Bed Sitting Room (film)|The Bed Sitting Room]]'', based on the play by [[Spike Milligan]] and [[John Antrobus]]. In 1968 and 1969 Moore embarked on two solo comedy ventures, firstly in the film ''[[30 is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia]]'' and secondly, on stage, for an Anglicised adaptation of [[Woody Allen]]'s ''Play It Again, Sam'' at the [[Gielgud Theatre|Globe Theatre]] in London's [[West End of London|West End]].

[[File:Peter Cook Dudley Moore Kraft Music Hall1.jpg|thumb|left|Moore (right) with [[Peter Cook]] in 1969. Their success was based on the contrast between Moore's buffoonery and Cook's [[deadpan]] monologues.<ref name="double act"/>]]
In the 1970s, the relationship between Moore and Cook became increasingly strained as the latter's [[alcoholism]] began affecting his work. In 1971, however, Cook and Moore took sketches from ''Not Only....But Also'' and ''Goodbye Again'', together with new material, to create the stage revue ''Behind the Fridge''. This show toured Australia and New Zealand in 1971 and ran in London's west end between 1972 and 1973 before transferring to New York City in 1973, re-titled ''Good Evening''.<ref>Peter Cook: A Biography, Harry Thompson, Hodder and Stoughton, 1997, Chapter 12</ref> Cook frequently appeared inebriated, on and off stage. Nonetheless, the show proved very popular and it won [[Tony Award|Tony]] and [[Grammy Award]]s.

When the Broadway run of ''Good Evening'' ended, Moore stayed on in the U.S. to pursue his film acting ambitions in Hollywood, but the pair reunited to host ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' on 24 January 1976 during SNL's first season. They performed a number of their classic stage routines, including "[[One Leg Too Few]]" and "Frog and Peach", among others, in addition to participating in some skits with the show's ensemble.

It was during the Broadway run of ''Good Evening'' that Cook persuaded Moore to take the humour of Pete and Dud further on [[gramophone record|long-playing records]] as [[Derek and Clive]]. [[Chris Blackwell]] circulated [[Bootleg recording|bootleg]] copies to friends in the music business and the popularity of the recording convinced Cook to release it commercially as ''[[Derek and Clive (Live)]]'' (1976). Two further "Derek and Clive" albums, ''[[Derek and Clive Come Again]]'' (1977) and ''[[Derek and Clive Ad Nauseam]]'' (1978), were later released. The latter was also filmed for a documentary, ''[[Derek and Clive Get the Horn]]''. In the film it is clear tensions between the two men were at a breaking point, with Moore at one point walking out of the recording room singing, 'Breaking up is so easy to do.' In 2009, it came to light that, at the time, there were attempts to have them prosecuted under obscenity laws for their "Derek and Clive" comedy recordings.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/mar/16/peter-cook-dudley-moore-dpp|title=Ban them! How Pete and Dud fell foul of the law yet still escaped prosecution|first=Alan|last=Travis|date=16 March 2009|access-date=10 December 2024|work=The Guardian}}</ref>

The last significant appearance for the partnership was in 1978's ''[[The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978 film)|The Hound of the Baskervilles]]'', where Moore played [[Dr. Watson]] to Cook's [[Sherlock Holmes]], as well as three other roles: in drag; as a one-legged man; and at the start and end of the film as a flamboyant and mischievous pianist. He also wrote the film's score. Co-star [[Terry-Thomas]] described it as "the most outrageous film I ever appeared in&nbsp;... there was no magic&nbsp;... it was bad!".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Thomas |first1=Terry|last2=Daum|first2=Terry|title=Terry-Thomas Tells Tales: An Autobiography |date=1990|publisher=Robson Books|isbn=9780860516620|page=117|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fjQeAAAAMAAJ|access-date=1 March 2017}}</ref> The film was not a success, either  critically or financially.

Moore and Cook eventually reunited for the annual American benefit for the homeless, ''[[Comic Relief USA|Comic Relief]]'', in 1987, and again in 1989 for a British audience at the [[Amnesty International]] benefit ''[[The Secret Policeman's Biggest Ball]]''.

Moore was deeply affected by the death of Cook in 1995, and for weeks would regularly telephone Cook's home in London, just to hear his friend's voice on the telephone answering machine. Moore attended Cook's memorial service in London and, at the time, many people who knew him noted that Moore was behaving strangely and attributed it to grief or drinking. In November 1995, Moore teamed up with friend and humorist [[Martin Lewis (humorist)|Martin Lewis]] in organising a two-day salute to Cook in Los Angeles that Moore co-hosted with Lewis.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

In December 2004 the [[Channel 4]] television station in the United Kingdom broadcast ''[[Not Only But Always]]'', a TV film dramatising the relationship between Moore and Cook, although most of the attention of the production was directed towards Cook. Around the same time, the relationship between the two was also the subject of a stage play called ''[[Pete and Dud: Come Again]]'' by Chris Bartlett and [[Nick Awde]]. For this production Moore is the main subject. Set in a [[chat-show]] studio in the 1980s, it concerns Moore's comic and personal relationship with Cook and the directions their careers took after the split of the partnership.