Peanuts

A couple of odds and ends on Derek Cooper. A correspondent shares an anecdote from the late Robert Robinson, who also went to Raynes Park Grammar before he went up to Oxford University, though he was a couple of years older than Mr Cooper - and studied at Exeter College, whilst Cooper was at Wadham. . 

"Bob used to delight in telling the story that as Derek Cooper was about to flunk his degree, he fell off his bicycle and got himself awarded a degree aegrotat, as he was so injured that he couldn’t hold a pen."

And, on the gestation of The Food Programme, as well as a 1971 pilot, there was a precursor. A Radio 4 series called A La Carte, produced in Birmingham by Jock Gallagher.