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Full Description
In the league table of the funniest universities in the world, Cambridge wears the crown. Home of Britain's oldest student sketch comedy troupe, the Cambridge Footlights, it has been a veritable conveyor belt of comic talent that's been rolling for more than a century.
From Monty Python, The Goodies and Not the Nine O'Clock News to Peep Show, QI and The Great British Bake-Off, its alumni are behind many of the shows that have entertained audiences from the 1960s to today. This book tells the story of the Footlights, chronicling its evolution from its creation in the 1880s to the present.
The Footlights has long been a potential portal to fame: talent scouts, especially from the BBC, were in the habit of coming up to Cambridge on the lookout for comedy writers and material. This book traces the journeys of its most distinguished alumni, including Germaine Greer, John Cleese, Douglas Adams, Peter Cook, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Miriam Margolyes, Emma Thompson, Richard Ayoade, David Mitchell and Sue Perkins, among many others.
Featuring interviews with numerous former Footlights alumni, and accounts of routines and revues, it vividly captures the desire of each successive intake to make their comic mark. Through examining the impact of the Footlights on British popular culture and comedy over the last 60 years, it demonstrates how its farces, musical comedies, pantomimes and the famous May Week revues have both reflected the tastes of the times and served as a 'nursery' for generations of comic writers and performers. In the world of comedy, it is a unique institution.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1: Beyond the Fringe
Chapter 2: The Early Years
Chapter 3: Cabbages and Kings
Chapter 4: The Last Laugh
Chapter 5: I Thought I Saw It Move
Chapter 6: A Clump of Plinths
Chapter 7: Stuff What Dreams Are Made Of
Chapter 8: Supernatural Gas
Chapter 9: Norman Ruins
Chapter 10: A Kick in The Stalls
Chapter 11: The Cellar Tapes
Chapter 12: Hawaiian Cheese Party
Chapter 13: Another Fine Mess
Chapter 14: Back and Beyond
Chapter 15: Barracuda Jazz Option
Chapter 16: Emotional Baggage
Chapter 17: Far Too Happy
Chapter 18: Devils
Chapter 19: Are We There Yet?
Chapter 20: Gone With the Clappers
Notes
Bibliography
Index
