A spectacular disaster for Peter Cook. The format crossed comedy with chat-show (guests included Spike Milligan, S J Perelman, Johnny Speight and Kirk Douglas) to produce a rambling, unscripted, out-of-control programme made all the more dicey by the fact that, apart from some pre-filmed sequences, it was transmitted live and Cook was obviously very nervous indeed, and a little bit the worse for alcohol. (Famously, instead of asking Douglas 'How are you?' he said 'Who are you?'.) The filmed sections were not much better: in one, Cook impersonated Cilla Black and went up to Batley, Yorkshire, so that he could jump out in front of people and ask, as Cilla did for her then current BBC1 series, 'Do you know who I am?'.

Originally planning to screen 13 editions, the BBC pulled the plug after just three - citing, as the main reasons, concerns over the dubious taste of some of the material, and the uneasy mix of genres. Executives must also have been concerned by the reviews, which included such choice terms as 'dismally embarrassing' and 'truly pathetic'. The show also attracted controversy - most of it surrounding a sketch about God and the subsequent brouhaha when a member of the audience criticised the piece only to be verbally roughed up by the unrepentant Cook. Despite, or perhaps because of, such incidents the three transmitted editions did at least achieve healthy viewing figures.