The Undiscovered Peter Cook

When Peter Cook died in 1995, his wife Lin pulled down the shutters in their Hampstead home, locked the door and refused all media requests for access to her husband’s archive.

But she eventually relented and let her friend Victor Lewis-Smith and a camera crew inside. Here, Lewis-Smith reveals just some of the treasure trove of ephemera he found in Cook’s huge, chaotic study.

It’s a mad jumble – everything from a home-made tape of Cook singing along to his favourite song, Peggy Sue, to extemporised Derek and Clive recordings, made with long-time collaborator and friend Dudley Moore.