Sunday, June 03, 2018

Peter Cook as Mr Justice Cantley



As we all turn over to BBC4 to watch Tom Mangold's 1979 documentary on Jeremy Thorpe, here is Peter Cook's parody of the judge's summing up at his trial.

Maybe it is because I was still a teenager then, but this feels dangerous in a way that no television satire does today.

2 comments:

Frank Little said...

One recalls that Private Eye, in which Cook had an interest, was very hot on "pooves" in those days.

Phil Beesley said...

Over at the Guardian, classic car enthusiast David Steel observed that the TV programme showed Thorpe in a Rover P5 when he owned a Humber Super Snipe at the time. From the footage I have seen, it looks like two Super Snipe models. This may seem petty but it is also about Thorpe as a man.

UK royalty rode around in Daimlers and Rolls-Royces, government ministers rode in a Rover P5, foreign dignitaries had a Mercedes-Benz limo and Czechs had a Tatra. The biggest buyers for the Humber Super Snipe were the Ministry of Defence -- there is something about that choice of car which marks Thorpe as contrary.