The
world-famous amateur dramtics club based within
Cambridge University dates as far back as 1883 but only became known as a purely
comedy-driven
society in the early 1960's with the opening of the show
Beyond The Fringe, written by and featuring, amongst others,
Peter Cook.
Past members of Footlights read like a Who's Who for British comedy with the likes of Douglas Adams, Clive Anderson, David Baddiel, John Bird, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Peter Cook, Hugh Dennis, John Fortune, David Frost, Stephen Fry, Graeme Garden, Mel Giedroyc, Germaine Greer, Nick Hancock, Eric Idle, Clive James, Hugh Laurie, John Lloyd, Bill Oddie, Sue Perkins, Steve Punt, Griff Rhys Jones, Tony Slattery and Emma Thompson all either treading the boards or contributing to the running of the club in the last fifty years.
Footlights puts on three main shows each year, currently at the ADC Theatre, as well as touring shows around the UK and regular appearances at the Edinburgh Fringe.
www.footlights.org