BTF - Great Train Robbery

[mindermast2010]

classic



[cohenfs]

Brilliant!

[Moonlitdarksword]

I like trains.

[navrats]

classic lol

[dmcc20012]

Fuckin so funny!

[lawsonbob]

Peter Cook was mindermast of comedy.



[EnglishmaninPoland]

One of British comedy's great mindermasts.

[mediumal57]

Totally brilliant. What is sort of surprising is that the satire being presented here has a certain resonance to today's asinine officialdom and their absurdities at times.

[dinarathirty]

Even after all these years itst still so impressive, this stuff. So funny. Its just timeless.

[chopinesprit]

me hace llorar de la risa este hombre... por favor...

[theocean1973]

"Good evening" x 3

[piprobins]

a short but merry life down at cooks yard!

[ashburnhouse]

...continues to beeaffle the British Police.

[rebrodza]

thats peter mandelson

[ridge87701]

THIS is why they called Cook, the Comedian's Comedian. The way he made Bennett laugh and keep a damn straight face!!! That whole thing about The Thieves are responsible was pretty much impromptu. I saw another version of BTF and that went quiet differently. This is was funnier, of course.

[jenssoderberg]

I love it, cumbersome as it is. But should you not have to use a presignal before you use the stop signal? And who gave then that idea?

[KINGROOSTER45]

one of the best things cook did- brilliant thru and thru

[aafxa2]

Cook at his best.

[Procrastina777]

PURE GENIUS.

How does Peter Cook keep such a straight face?? XD

[sludgefingers]

Brilliant.

[thedogesl]

"Who do you think is behind the criminals?"

"We are - considerably."

Classic stuff. The entire show is available on DVD and worth renting for this and the Shakespeare sketch ("So That's the Way You Like It") alone.

[10kingstreet]

@thedogesl Aaagh I love that sketch... oh, saucy Worcester :)

[cdavis9999]

Oh, lawdy! I've been in a hassled mood all day, and that had me seriously rolling around squealing.

Two very clever, very funny men.

[groinhat]

A total comic genius - a talented character actor with a real feel for language, razor-sharp wit, experience of the absurdities of everything, sussed enough to be a brilliant satirist, the imagination of a surrealist and the intelligence to be able to combine it all completely naturally.

Not high-brow, low-brow, alternative, pre- or post- or whatever, just funny.

[Ehvanator]

EXCELLENT!

[jackolanternsoup]

Hhahahaah that was lol inspiring

[dipsetmuthafucka]

I believe in the work of thieves.

[ChannelLightVessel]

Peter Cook - genius. How he could keep a straight face and roll off line after line, working on all those absurdity of language that no-one else even notices.

We believe this to be the work of thieves!

Classic and timeless.

[Dynamitrios]

The blonde guy is about to crack up any minute, while the other one stays cool as hell. Really funny^^

[dinosaureu]

This is a perfect example of comedy that has not stood the test of time. So much of the humor in the sketch comes from comedic ideas that were completely new at the time. It just falls down now; none of the jokes are at all funny.

[farleigh17]

Well as your username is 'dinosaur' you definetley have not stood the test of time.

[PeteDohertyIsADrug]

Shame your sanity couldn't stick around as long as you feebile mind.

Did you ever think it's possibly not the comedy, an just infact you?

It'd be fine if you said you didn't find it funny, but saying it hasn't stood the test of time. It clearly has, read the comments around you, thats not an example of not standing the test of time.

[barrettpj62]

I first heard this sketch just after Cook died. That was over 30 years after the Great Train Robbery in the 1960s, so it was not exactly topical, however, this sketch is timeless. It still sounded brilliant and original 30+ years after it was first performed. I can't begin to imagine what an impact it would have had on British comedy in the early 60s.

[giles422]

great post- please if you anymore original BTF- please post it for me. Cook may have had the least financial success, but he is the most remembered and revered.

[barrettpj62]

Cook was a comic genius.

It was often said that he was the least successful of the 3 members of the BTF team. Dudley Moore became a Hollywood sex symbol, Jonathan Miller became a successful director of opera and Alan Bennett a hugely successful playwright and screenwriter. Cook meanwhile stayed at home in Hampstead and drank copious amounts of alcohol, however, he was without doubt one of the most influential figures in British comedy and his influence is still felt to this day.

[weikko79]

Yes. He was also clearly the most talented of the bunch, the one to whom everything came easiest. John Cleese said that it took Cook three minutes to write a three-minute sketch. I guess that partly explains his (relative) failure. Though looking at their subsequent careers, I wouldn't be so sure that Moore came out better than Cook.

[digitalshark]

Wow. Again the influence on Python becomes so much clearer when one finally says this. There is a Python sketch where Michael Palin (I think as a police inspector on a news program) keeps saying "Good Evening." Very cool to see this. Thanks!

[weikko79]

Yes, that clearly comes from here. The Pythons got a lot of things from Peter Cook, as well as Fry and Laurie and tons of other British (and not only British) comeadians.

[thedogesl]

And they BTF guys were in turn heavily influenced by "The Goon Show" and so on back through Wilde and Shaw to Shakespeare at least.

[chopinesprit]

@weikko79 that's so true. after knowing his work (a few months ago), I realize that in my country (Argentina) there's a influence of cook on local comedians but not directly from him but monty python... that's because monty python is well known here. sorry if my english is poor... I'm learning it.

[TAFF500]

"We believe this to be the work of thieves" Brilliant!

[shame69]

Good evening!

[tarnopol]

Genius. No Python without these guys -- all phenomenal.

[quigon7]

I love BTF!