finger nails a cup of tea and a biscuit a lie down on the chez lounge. But not Tommy, he'd come in at the last minute with his mates. I'd hear him next door cracking gags. The one person who did get a bit agitated was his dresser, Joe. He'd knock on the door and say, "Mr Cooper it's nearly time" Tommy would say, "It's alright Joe relax, relax you know what relax is, it's a little bit of dark chocolate" Then he'd say "But Mr Cooper you'll be off" - Tommy said, "Joe I've been going off for years" - "But Mr Cooper your on" Tommy replied, "How am I doing? am I getting any laughs?" And then Joe would bang on the door, "But Mr Cooper there playing your music" - Tommy says "Why didn't you call me, I'll be late."
Absolutely fantastic. No other comic would work with him, he was too good. He had this fantastic expression. A giant of comedy, a British WC Fields and he will be irreplaceable. I've never met anybody who disliked him as a man. If you didn't like Tommy Cooper the comic, you didn't like comedy.
Eammon Andrews - Genial host of This is your life
Max Bygraves - Singer
Cannon and Ball - Comedy double act
Ronnie Barker - Comic Actor
Paul Daniels - Magician
Jim Davidson - Comedian
Benny Hill - Funnyman
Eric Sykes - Comedy actor and writer
Barry Cryer - Comedy script writer
Tom O'Connor - Comedian
Anthony Hopkins - Oscar winning actor
Eric Morecambe - Funnyman
I've no idea how many surprise guests we've had, for people we've saluted, on This is your life. But the craziest, must have easily been Tommy Cooper. On Eric Sykes This is your life I just gave up and sat down with my guests.
Everyone wanted to imitate him didn't they. That was the true accolade I think. And he was funny as soon as he came on, he didn't have to say anything he was just........FUNNY. I mean there weren't many like that I suppose. Well, W.C. Fields was one, errr Oliver Hardy I suppose. He was clumsy, he was sweaty, he was hot, he sighed a lot, but above all he laughed at himself and I think it's that laugh that'll stay in my memory.
Tom and his wife lived in a bungalow in Eastbourne and one sunday morning they had a terrible row. And Dove, his wife, went off in a terrible huff and arrived at this hotel in Brighton, where they used to have a sunday morning drink in the hotel bar. Now she's sitting there having a drink and fifteen minutes later Tom follows on in another cab. Five minutes from the
Tommy Cannon - "He was fabulous Tommy."
Bobby Ball - " He was a legend that man, he was absolutely brilliant, Tommy liked Tommy."
Tommy Cannon - "I loved him me, one of my heroes."
Tommy was amazing. He looked like Mount Rushmore on legs.
He never said anything about real life so he never dates.
He did a great after dinner speech at the Water Rats. This great big man just stood up. That's all he did. He just stood up and the place was in absolute hysterics at a man standing up. Now, I don't care how much you study comedy, you can't define that, that ability to fill a room with laughter because you are emanating humour. After several minutes of laughter
He was the only bloke who could read the telephone directory and make it funny. He was a genius we'll all miss him.
Tommy not just a lovely man but a great, great comic. You know Tommy Cooper was just as funny off as he was on and that really was funny. For eighteen months I had the dressing room next to Tommy's at the Prince of Wales theatre in London. I'm the kind of person who tries to relax before he has a show. I would get there early to the theatre and have my aspirins and
The seriousness of actors has always left me cold, but people like Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe and Ken Dodd have always got to me because they laugh at themselves, they laugh at us. I think what Tommy did was make us laugh at the fool in ourselves.
You have to see the man on stage. For the first three minutes he wasn't even on. He used to pretend he was locked in his dressing room. He used to have people crying and he wasn't even on.
The thing about Tom was that he couldn't act. He thought he could but he couldn't. I can remember once. when I was shooting the original Plank in the sixties. We was sitting at lunch with the other actors, Tom was sitting at the end of the table. Suddenly he gets up and lies down on the floor in the public restaurant. Well I expected this but all the others stopped eating.
hotel he takes his clothes off, his jacket, his shirt, his pants everything. Then he's right down to his underwear, all he has is his socks, his long Johns, his suspenders, and he walks through the hotel. All the guests are looking at this fella' and wondering what's going on. He walks into the hotel bar right to where his wife is having a drink. And he says, "Dove where's my clean shirt?"
he turned to his wife and said, "I haven't said anything yet." And the whole place went up again.
