'He was the sweetest, kindest man...' Harry Enfield reveals friendship with late comedy legend Peter Cook
Harry Enfield has revealed that he and late comedy legend Peter Cook shared a friendship and would meet up once a month for drinks in London.
Harry Enfield has revealed that he and Peter Cook were drinking buddies.
The 64-year-old comic admits his sketches - which have included The Old Gits, Loadsamoney and Kevin the Teenager - were influenced by Cook and Dudley Moore’s iconic Derek and Clive double act and he was lucky enough to be able to call Cook a personal friend.
Harry and Peter – who died in January 1995 at the age of 57 – would meet up once a month in North London for drinks and he remembers Cook as being "the sweetest, kindest man".
Speaking on The Third Act podcast, Harry said: “I used to see a lot of Peter Cook because I lived in Primrose Hill and he was in Hampstead and we used to go for a drink once a month, or I’d go round to him and we’d have a drink.
“We used to have to have supper very early because by the end of supper he had to be taken home. He was the sweetest, kindest man. Really gentle. I think that thing about mischief rather than malice, he probably had quite a lot of malice but he made it into mischief.”
Harry - whose TV sketch shows included Harry Enfield's Television Programme, Harry Enfield and Chums and Harry and Paul - would listen to Derek and Clive skits over and over again and he still finds them hilariously funny now.
He said: “There was a lot of the ‘c-word’ and there was quite a lot of things they found up Jayne Mansfield’s a***. That was the mid-70s, that was full alcoholism, I think that was done on an enormous amount. They were my heroes, it’s weird when you meet these people, because they are your heroes."
Although Harry was close friends with Peter, he only ever met his comedy partner Dudley - who passed away in March 2002 at the age of 66 - once.
He said: "The first and only time I met Dudley Moore was at Peter’s funeral.”
Harry is now enjoying semi-retirement and has no plans to make more television programmes, even though he did write a sketch for David Mitchell and Robert Webb’s new Channel 4 sketch show, Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping.
He said: “I don’t know what I’d like to do. I’m happy loafing around a bit. I’m blessed.
“When you get to my age you don’t care anymore, I’ve been incredibly lucky. I’m now a legend, but for about 20 years I’ve been a legend.
"I swim every day in Highgate Ponds, and I take my cap off and go, ‘Old age pensioner.’ And then put it back on. That means I go in free until nine o’clock, if I’m late I pay £2.90, whereas young people have to pay £4.50, that really pleases me. It’s a lovely thing.
“Sometimes I do all my rushing around in the morning and then I go for a swim and then I have a nap.
“It’s so nice not feeling you have to be driven. I remember once someone saying, ‘Success is 10 percent talent and 90 percent drive.’ I thought, ‘Yes, that’s definitely the case.’ That’s how I felt."
