Peter Cook and Dudley Moore faced prosecution for Derek and Clive

Files from the Director of Public Prosecutions released this week reveal that Harold Wilson’s Labour Government considered prosecuting the comics Peter Cook (left) and Dudley Moore (right) over their expletive-driven comedy record Derek and Clive (live) in 1975.

Recorded in ad-libbed late-night sessions in New York in 1973, the tapes, which were made into a record after being championed by a number of rock bands, among them the Rolling Stones, The Who and Led Zeppelin, included a series of foul-mouthed sketches which were described at the time as "making your average stag club compere sound like the Pope".

In one of the sketches, The Worst Job I Ever Had, Clive [Cook] claims he once nursed Jayne Mansfield through a complaint he referred to as "lobstericimus bumbequissimus" - removing lobsters from her rectum.

The Wolverhampton police force’s obscene publications squad was particularly exercised. One Sgt David Wilson, along with WPC Veronica Reynolds, went so far as to make a "test purchase" of Derek and Clive (live), which was released by Island records. "In my opinion it is of an obscene and offensive nature," Wilson told the DPP.

The files show that Scotland Yard also pressed for prosecution after an advert for the bootleg tape appeared in a West End theatre programme. However, Merlyn Rees, Labour’s Home Secretary at the time, referred the matter to the DPP who, after some consideration, decided not to take any action against Cook and Moore.

The album was banned by the BBC but this did not stop it going on to sell 100,000 copies in Britain and America– mainly, it was said, to adolescent boys.