Beyond the Fringe was a British comedy stage revue written and performed by Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller. It played in Britain's West End and on New York's Broadway in the early 1960s, and is widely regarded as seminal to the rise of satire in 1960s Britain.

The show
The revue was widely seen to be ahead of its time, both in its unapologetic willingness to debunk figures of authority, and by its inherently surrealistic comedic vein. Humiliation of authority was something only previously delved into in The Goon Show, with such figures as Winston Churchill and Harold Macmillan coming under special scrutiny — although the BBC were quick to frown upon it. Mr Macmillan — according to Cook — was not particularly fond of the slurred caricature and charade of senile forgetfulness (marked by a failure to coherently pronounce 'Conservative Party') handed down on him in Cook's impersonation. Since Beyond the Fringe was not owned by the BBC, however, the troupe had the artistic licence to do as they saw fit. Most specifically, its lampooning of the British war effort was scorned by some war veterans for its supposed insensitivity when touching upon the issue of warzone fatalities. (One British visitor to the Broadway performance was said to have stood up and shouted 'rotters!' at a sketch he found distasteful, before apparently sitting down again and enjoying the remainder of the show.) In response to this the Beyond the Fringe team insisted that they were not ridiculing the hundreds of fatalities therein, but were challenging the perceptions held by a small proportion of the British media, via the avenue of comedic expression.

Influence

Discography

Cook, P. et al. (2003) Beyond the Fringe ISBN 0-413-77368-X
Carpenter, Humphrey (2000) That was Satire that was ISBN 0-575-06588-5
Cook, W (Ed) (2004) Goodbye Again ISBN 1-84413-400-8
Bennett, Alan (1994) Writing Home ISBN 0-571-17388-8
Paskin, Barbra (1997) Dudley Moore ISBN 0-330-35322-5
Thompson, Harry (1997) Peter Cook ISBN 0-340-64969-0