Jim Haberman writes…
About two minutes into this piece, I starting thinking the interviewer just might be the great comedian Peter Cook, and by the eight-minute mark, I was convinced of it and firmly remain so. As an admitted Anglophile comedy junkie who's long put Cook's earlier work at the very top of the gods' pantheon and listened intently to pretty much every known recorded word of his, I'd be willing to wager not only the farm on this, but whole townships and counties in the bargain.
Aside from clearly recognizing the voice, my thoughts are these. Peter Cook had earlier in 1971 hosted a legendary flop, the brief, disastrous run of a live interview TV series on BBC2 somewhat saucily titled "Where Do I Sit?" which probably left him with the germ of some basic interviewing skills. Woody Allen is and was known to have been a longtime admirer of Cook, and it's quite conceivable that for this straightforward long-running Granada TV interview series "Cinema", they devised a prank that went something like this: Allen, America's latest red-hot young comedy director/star, agreed to appear on the series only if Cook was allowed to interview him. Their clever private conceit for the show of course was that Allen would speak only in falsehoods the entire time, and to make the resulting gag appearance seem genuine, Cook's involvement remained a secret.
This "Cinema" episode from Sept. 9 of that year may not even have aired, though since it's listed for that date in IMDB, one suspects it was shown, undoubtedly to much public bafflement. Further enforcing that this is likely Cook's handiwork are: a) it doesn't sound like Parkinson who did most of the show's interviews of that period, b) the program did allow occasional one-off celebrity interviewers, and especially c) there's the inescapable fact that this interviewer blandly, unquestioningly forges on in the face of such blatant lies from Allen that anyone with a brain and not in on the joke would have stormed off set in the first five minutes or less. Or begun cracking up, which Cook famously seldom did, unlike his frequent comedy partner, Dudley Moore, who famously quite often did. Topping it all off, this interviewer is a brilliant example of one of Cook's most celebrated signature characters: the fatuous, clueless, monotone upper-class twit.
Well, that's my plea, your honor. Apologies to you if this went on too long, as I've been known to do sometimes, or as many might say, always. Let me also take this moment to let you know how very much I've been enjoying your blog since I learned of it six months back or so. You certainly dig up and put out a lot of terrific, often seldom-seen gems (like this interview), for much of which I share great fondness, especially so many comedy greats — the Marxes, L & H, Benny, etc. (And to boot, I find your editorializing pretty spot-on nearly every time.) So please keep it up! And thanks for hearing me out on my favorite topic.
I have no opinion on this. Might be Cook, might not be Cook. The main thing that would lead me to the latter conclusion is that I would have thought the interviewer would have been funnier. But Jim may be right. Anyone out there know for certain?