The Cambridge Footlights

From Monty Python and Not the Nine O'Clock News to Peep Show, QI and The Great British Bake-Off, alumni of Britain's oldest student sketch comedy troupe have set the tone of cultural eras from the 1960s to today. This book tells the story of the Cambridge Footlights, chronicling its evolution from its creation in the 1880s to the present.

This diverting book includes first-hand interviews with former Footlights alumni, and extracts from past Footlights productions. It draws on material from the extensive archives of the Footlight club at the Cambridge University library, which holds records of club admin.

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, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Miriam Margolyes, Emma Thompson, Richard Ayoade, David Mitchell and Sue Perkins, among many others, covering how they got into the club, their contribution and subsequent careers.

Through examining the impact of the Footlights on British popular culture and comedy over the last 60 years, this book 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.