Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling
Encyclopedia
Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling was a fictional character
played by British comedian Peter Cook
throughout his career. Streeb-Greebling (or Greeb-Streebling, depending on Cook's mood) was a stereotype of the upper class English
duffer. He was usually presented in the form of interview
s with various comedians acting as the interviewer. The most common (and famous) interviewer was Cook's former partner, Dudley Moore
, in Beyond the Fringe
and Not Only... But Also
.
's wing with a blow of her nose - who inspired him to take up his life's work of teaching raven
s to fly underwater. Sir Arthur claims "She came up to me in the conservatory - I was pruning some walnuts - and she said 'Arthur -- I wasn't Sir Arthur in those days -- if you don't get underwater and start teaching ravens to fly, I'll smash your stupid face off,' and I think it was this that sort of first started my interest in the whole business." However, his work was largely inconsequential. When Dudley's interviewer asks "Is it difficult to get ravens to fly underwater?" his honest response is "Well, I think the word difficult is an awfully good one here. Yes, it is. It's nigh impossible... There they are sitting on my wrist. I say 'Fly! Fly you little devils!!'... (then) they drown. Little black feathery figure topples off my wrist and spirals to a watery grave. We're knee deep in feathers off that part of the coast... not a single success in the whole forty years of training" When a perplexed Dudley asks if this makes his life a miserable failure, Sir Arthur is forced to reply "My life has been a miserable failure, yes."
Sir Arthur's 35 years as a restaurateur were nothing short of disastrous. His restaurant, The Frog and Peach was a catastrophic failure, owing to its location - in the middle of a bog in the heart of the Yorkshire Moors, and its very limited menu - the "nauseating" Frog à la Peche and the "positively revolting" Peche à la Frog.
It was Sir Arthur's father who inspired his life's other work: the study of worm
s. Sir Arthur's father claimed to have found the world's longest worm, at approximately three thousand miles. He came across the head in the Andes
and spent five years tracing it back to the Azores
. However, accusations were made that he had actually discovered the head of one worm in the Andes and the tail of another worm in the Azores. As a result, Streeb-Greebling spent a great deal of his life trying to encourage worms to speak to him, again to no avail.
in "A Life In Pieces". The series of twelve five-minute interviews saw Sir Arthur recounting snippets of his life loosely based on The Twelve Days of Christmas. Another set of more famous and successful interviews involving Cook as Streeb-Greebling with Chris Morris
as the interviewer (basing his performance on his abrasive newsreader character from On the Hour
and The Day Today
) were broadcast on "Why Bother?
" on BBC Radio 3
in 1994, less than a year before Cook's death.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
played by British comedian Peter Cook
Peter Cook
Peter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...
throughout his career. Streeb-Greebling (or Greeb-Streebling, depending on Cook's mood) was a stereotype of the upper class English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
duffer. He was usually presented in the form of interview
Interview
An interview is a conversation between two people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.- Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research:"Definition" -...
s with various comedians acting as the interviewer. The most common (and famous) interviewer was Cook's former partner, Dudley Moore
Dudley Moore
Dudley Stuart John Moore, CBE was an English actor, comedian, composer and musician.Moore first came to prominence as one of the four writer-performers in the ground-breaking comedy revue Beyond the Fringe in the early 1960s, and then became famous as half of the highly popular television...
, in Beyond the Fringe
Beyond the Fringe
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 London's West End and then on New York's Broadway in the early 1960s, and is widely regarded as seminal to the rise of satire in 1960s Britain.-The...
and Not Only... But Also
Not Only... But Also
Not Only... But Also was a popular 1960s BBC British television series starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.-History:The show was originally intended as a solo project for Moore, called Not Only Dudley Moore, But Also His Guests...
.
Biography
Sir Arthur was the son of Lady Beryl Streeb-Greebling - a 'wonderful dancer' who was still dancing at 107 years of age, and who was capable of breaking a swanSwan
Swans, genus Cygnus, are birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae...
's wing with a blow of her nose - who inspired him to take up his life's work of teaching raven
Raven
Raven is the common name given to several larger-bodied members of the genus Corvus—but in Europe and North America the Common Raven is normally implied...
s to fly underwater. Sir Arthur claims "She came up to me in the conservatory - I was pruning some walnuts - and she said 'Arthur -- I wasn't Sir Arthur in those days -- if you don't get underwater and start teaching ravens to fly, I'll smash your stupid face off,' and I think it was this that sort of first started my interest in the whole business." However, his work was largely inconsequential. When Dudley's interviewer asks "Is it difficult to get ravens to fly underwater?" his honest response is "Well, I think the word difficult is an awfully good one here. Yes, it is. It's nigh impossible... There they are sitting on my wrist. I say 'Fly! Fly you little devils!!'... (then) they drown. Little black feathery figure topples off my wrist and spirals to a watery grave. We're knee deep in feathers off that part of the coast... not a single success in the whole forty years of training" When a perplexed Dudley asks if this makes his life a miserable failure, Sir Arthur is forced to reply "My life has been a miserable failure, yes."
Sir Arthur's 35 years as a restaurateur were nothing short of disastrous. His restaurant, The Frog and Peach was a catastrophic failure, owing to its location - in the middle of a bog in the heart of the Yorkshire Moors, and its very limited menu - the "nauseating" Frog à la Peche and the "positively revolting" Peche à la Frog.
It was Sir Arthur's father who inspired his life's other work: the study of worm
Worm
The term worm refers to an obsolete taxon used by Carolus Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod invertebrate animals, and stems from the Old English word wyrm. Currently it is used to describe many different distantly-related animals that typically have a long cylindrical...
s. Sir Arthur's father claimed to have found the world's longest worm, at approximately three thousand miles. He came across the head in the Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
and spent five years tracing it back to the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
. However, accusations were made that he had actually discovered the head of one worm in the Andes and the tail of another worm in the Azores. As a result, Streeb-Greebling spent a great deal of his life trying to encourage worms to speak to him, again to no avail.
Later interviews
Towards the end of his life, Cook appeared as Streeb-Greebling, interviewed by Ludovic KennedyLudovic Kennedy
Sir Ludovic Henry Coverley Kennedy was a British journalist, broadcaster, humanist and author best known for re-examining cases such as the Lindbergh kidnapping and the murder convictions of Timothy Evans and Derek Bentley, and for his role in the abolition of the death penalty in the United...
in "A Life In Pieces". The series of twelve five-minute interviews saw Sir Arthur recounting snippets of his life loosely based on The Twelve Days of Christmas. Another set of more famous and successful interviews involving Cook as Streeb-Greebling with Chris Morris
Chris Morris (satirist)
Christopher Morris is an English satirist, writer, director and actor. A former radio DJ, he is best known for anchoring the spoof news and current affairs television programmes The Day Today and Brass Eye, as well as his frequent engagement with controversial subject matter.In 2010 Morris...
as the interviewer (basing his performance on his abrasive newsreader character from On the Hour
On the Hour
On the Hour was a British radio programme that parodied current affairs broadcasting, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992.Written by Chris Morris, Armando Iannucci, Steven Wells, Andrew Glover, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring and David Quantick, it starred Morris as the overzealous and...
and The Day Today
The Day Today
The Day Today is a surreal British parody of television current affairs programmes, broadcast in 1994, and created by the comedians Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris. It is an adaptation of the radio programme On the Hour, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992...
) were broadcast on "Why Bother?
Why Bother?
Why Bother? was a Talkback production for BBC Radio 3, consisting of five 10-minute long radio interviews between Chris Morris and Peter Cook's character Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling, recorded in late 1993 and originally broadcast from 10 January – 14 January 1994...
" on BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
in 1994, less than a year before Cook's death.