Editing Pete and Dud

{{Short description|Fictional characters}}
[[File:Peter Cook Dudley Moore Good Evening 1974.JPG|thumb|Peter Cook ('Pete') and Dudley Moore ('Dud') in 1974]]
'''Pete and Dud''' were characters played by the comedians and entertainers [[Peter Cook]] and [[Dudley Moore]]. 

The dialogue format originated in 1964 when Dudley Moore invited Peter Cook to appear in a television performance. Cook scripted a conversation between two men from [[Dagenham]] wearing [[flat cap]]s. This proved to be very popular with television audiences and the partnership was continued during the series ''[[Not Only... But Also]]''.<ref name=Guardian>{{cite news |title=Ban them! How Pete and Dud fell foul of the law yet still escaped prosecution |author=Alan Travis |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=16 March 2009 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/mar/16/peter-cook-dudley-moore-dpp}}</ref>

Pete is a know-it-all and would-be intellectual, very much in the spirit of [[E. L. Wisty]], and Dud is a put-upon Herbert in a subservient role, who tries to impress Pete with his knowledge. Neither of them has any real sense.

The "Dagenham Dialogues" between the two ranged from paintings (Pete finds the [[Mona Lisa]] snooty, and the bottoms of [[Peter Paul Rubens|Rubens]]'s nudes seem to follow them around the room), reasons why [[gecko]]s do not live long and being annoyed by film stars (including "bloody [[Greta Garbo]]" and "bloody [[Anna Magnani]]") pestering them for romance.

During the 1970s, Cook and Moore used a similar formula for the more adult [[Derek and Clive]] recordings.<ref name=Guardian/>

The comic and personal relationship between Cook and Moore is the subject of the play ''[[Pete and Dud: Come Again]]'', by Chris Bartlett and [[Nick Awde]]. In 2010, a group of comedians, [[Hugh Dennis]], [[Angus Deayton]] and [[Alistair McGowan]] among them, recreated some of the Pete and Dud comic routines on [[BBC Two]] in ''Pete and Dud: the Lost Sketches''.<ref>{{cite news |title=Pete and Dud: the Lost Sketches, BBC Two, review |author=Andrew Pettie |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=9 July 2010 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/7882444/Pete-and-Dud-the-Lost-Sketches-BBC-Two-review.html}}</ref>

Recalling his relationship with [[David Bowie]], English musician [[Brian Eno]] has stated "We knew each other for over 40 years, in a friendship that was always tinged by echoes of Pete and Dud.”.<ref>{{cite news |title=Eno reveals content of Bowie's final email |author=AAP |date=12 January 2016 |url=https://www.sbs.com.au/news/eno-reveals-content-of-bowie-s-final-email}}</ref> Eno has recalled that during the recording sessions for Bowie's [["Heroes" (David Bowie album)|"Heroes"]] album, he and Bowie would communicate in Peter Cook and Dudley Moore voices: "We slipped into Peter Cook and Dudley Moore characters. Bowie was Pete and I was Dud, and for the whole time we stayed in character. “Ooh, I dunno about that synthesizer part, Dud.””<ref>{{cite news |title=David Bowie's musical heroes in charcoal at auction |author=The Newsroom |newspaper=[[The Scotsman]] |date=25 February 2017 |url=https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/david-bowies-musical-heroes-charcoal-auction-1455194}}</ref> Bowie himself recalled, "Brian and I did have Pete and Dud down pretty pat. Long dialogues about [[John Cage]] performing on a ‘prepared layer’ at the [[Bricklayers Arms]] on the [[Old Kent Road]] and the like. Quite silly.”<ref>{{cite news |title=David Bowie remembers Berlin: "I can't express the feeling of freedom I felt there" |author=Rob Hughes |date=6 January 2017 |url=https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/david-bowie-remembers-berlin-cant-express-feeling-freedom-felt-98780/10/}}</ref>

==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pete And Dud}}
[[Category:Comedy theatre characters]]
[[Category:British comedy duos]]
[[Category:Fictional British people]]
[[Category:Male characters in theatre]]
[[Category:Dudley Moore]]
[[Category:Peter Cook]]
[[Category:Theatre characters introduced in 1964]]
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