Great at the Time

 Not Only... But Also, the Peter Cook and Dudley Moore sketch series, is one of those shows that has entered the realm of myth and legend, shining forth in retrospect as an all-time comedy great, an imperishable classic. The myth has been burnished by the passage of time, and, crucially, by the fact that so many episodes were lost, 'wiped', as was then customary, by the BBC. But was Not Only... But Also that good? On the evidence of last night's compilation show (and others shown some while back), the answer is No. The sketches are lame and painfully overstretched, mostly consisting of a potentially good idea hammered slowly to death. It's a shame, as both men were very talented, and Cook, with the right material, was one of the funniest men who ever drew breath – but even he could make nothing of most of these scripts. It seemed brilliantly funny at the time – and strikingly ambitious in its set-ups (it must have had a huge budget) – but that time is long gone, The Fast Show having put the final nail in the coffin of the overstretched sketch show. The only parts of Not Only... But Also that still shine are of course the Dagenham Dialogues, where a large part of the fun is in watching Pete and especially Dud desperately struggling not to laugh. The rest is, alas, history, of only historical interest. Nothing unusual about that: most TV comedy is of its time, and doesn't outlast that time. And even at the time it was rarely as funny as we remember it being.