The Cambridge Footlights

Name: The Cambridge Footlights
Price: 50 AUD
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ISBN: 9781350412187

A Very British Comedy Institution

Robert Sellers (Independent author, UK)

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Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Bloomsbury
05 March 2026

Theatre Studies; Film, TV & Radio; Television; Social & cultural history

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 since 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.

By: Robert Sellers (Independent author UK)
Imprint: Bloomsbury
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 238mm, Width: 160mm, Spine: 26mm
Weight: 460g
ISBN: 9781350412187
ISBN 10: 135041218X
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 05 March 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

List of Illustrations 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 Notes Bibliography Index

Robert Sellers is the author of over 25 books on subjects such as cinema, theatre, television, music and popular culture. These includes Raising Laughter: How the Sitcom Kept Britain Smiling in the '70s (2021), as well as authorized biographies of Oliver Reed, Kenny Everett and Ernie Wise, along with histories of Ealing Studios, Radio 1 and James Bond.

Reviews for The Cambridge Footlights: A Very British Comedy Institution

Drawing on a wealth of interviews with so many Footlights members who went on to become stars, this book presents a detailed and highly engaging history of this venerable Cambridge institution that has done so much to shape British comedy. * Oliver Double, author of Alternative Comedy and Getting the Joke, and Reader in Comic and Popular Performance, University of Kent, UK *