Monday 20 July 2015

183 The Tommy Cooper Hour


First  watched  : Uncertain

Tommy  used  to  do  one  hour  specials,  usually  following  Coronation  Street,  so  it  would  be  around  1973-74  that  I  first  saw  him. I  remember  my  gran  dismissing  it  as  "he  tries  to  be  a  magician  and  he  isn't  funny"  and  the  rebel  in  me  took  up  the  challenge. I  did  find  him  funny  although  I  can't  quite  see  why  he  was  so  highly-rated  among  his  peers.

For  all  the  affection  he  generated on  screen,  Tommy  seems  to  have  been  a  fairly  disagreeable  character  in   a  very  private - he  would  only  do  interviews  in  character -  life. He  was  a  long-term  adulterer,  notoriously  tight-fisted  and  a  heavy  smoker  and  drinker. The  latter  and  its  effect  on  his  health  curtailed  his  TV  career  as  Thames  decided  in  1980  that  continuing  with  his  own  shows  was  too  much  of  a  risk  though  he  continued  to  work  with  them  as  a  guest  on  other  shows. That  seems  to  have  acted  as  a wake-up  call  and  Tommy  made  some  effort  to  cut  back .

Tommy  of  course  went  out  "just  like  that"  collapsing  backwards  on  stage  during  a  guest  spot  on  Live  From  Her  Majesty's   in  1984  while  the  unknowing  audience  guffawed  at  what   they  assumed  was  part  of  the  act. A  hasty  commercial  break  signalled  to  the  TV  audience  that  all  was  not  well. Tommy  was  pronounced  dead  on  arrival  at  hospital.  1984  was  a  bad  year  for  show  business  with  Eric  Morecambe, Leonard  Rossiter  and  Diana  Dors  all  checking  out  and  Dustin  Gee,  who  followed  Tommy  on  stage  that  evening,  wasn't  long  in  joining  them. Like  the  Bradford  fire , footage  of  Tommy's   death  comes  and  goes  on  YouTube  but  it's  there  at  the  time  of  writing,  posted  from  Spain.

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