The Undiscovered Peter Cook

Following the death of Britain’s greatest satirist in 1995, Peter Cook’s widow Lin locked the door of his Hampstead house, and refused all access to the media. Until this year, when she invited her friend Victor Lewis-Smith and a BBC crew inside, to make a documentary about the man she knew and loved, with unprecedented access to Peter’s private recordings, diaries, letters, photographs, and much more

The result is a fascinating and unique hour of television, that includes Peter performing hitherto unknown comedy sketches, rediscovered interviews, and long-lost footage of Peter performing with his comedy partner Dudley Moore, as well as with Peter Sellers and David Attenborough. There are multiple extracts from Peter’s home videos, as well as Lin’s first televised interview. A major find is The Dead Sea Tapes, an LP recorded by Peter and Dudley in 1963, but never released (due to concerns about blasphemy laws), and long thought lost. Also included are rediscovered classic sketches from Not Only But Also, reconstructed in the edit suite after mute film clips were retrieved from Australia, and reunited with the original audio tracks.

Confirmed for BBC Four on 16 November at 10pm to 11pm. Set your video recorders.