Beyond the Fringe of, in 1960, by an Oxford graduate, Robert Ponsonby, artistic director for the Edinburgh International Festival. John Bassett, a graduate of Wadham College, Oxford, who was Ponsonby's assistant, recommended Dudley Moore, his jazz bandmate and a rising cabaret talent. Moore in turn recommended Alan Bennett, who had had a hit at Edinburgh a few years before. Bassett also chose Jonathan Miller, who had been a Footlights star in 1957. Miller recommended Cook. Bennett and Miller were already pursuing careers in academia and medicine respectively, but Cook had an agent, having written a West End revue for Kenneth Williams. Cook's agent
Before the Fringe Before the Fringe Before the Fringe was a BBC television series which ran for two series on BBC2 in 1967. The first series ran for eight episodes between 30 January and 20 March 1967. The second series of six episodes ran between 18 September and 23 October 1967, under the title "More Before the Fringe". Alan Melville was the guiding light behind this series which attempted to showcase on television some of the best aspects of pre-"Before the Fringe" revue. Before the 1960s Cambridge Footlights graduates took it by storm, the medium had been a much more gentler, broader affair.