Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: David Threlfall, Amanda Redman, Helen McCrory, Gregor Fisher, Jason Manford, Andy Rush, Charlotte Beaumont, John Biggins, James Carcaterra, Hayley Collett, Lucy Conley, Pamela Betsy Cooper, David Doyle, Bob Golding, Hamish Hamilton, Andrew Harrison, Kevin Hudson, Albie Marber, Jordan Metcalfe, Marene Miller, Jacinta Mulcahy, Michael Müller, Paul Ritter, Chris Ryman, David Sterne, Tilly Vosburgh, Phil Yarrow, Chris Cowlin.
For many, the night Tommy Cooper died at Her Majesty’s Theatre infront of a live television audience will always be remembered. The man who could make people laugh just by standing infront of them, had passed on at the end his act 30 years ago and for many the sound of laughter was never the same again.
In Simon Nye’s biopic of the comedian, Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This, there is much to take in about the man who made the humble Fez an institution and whilst some of it would be seen as perhaps sacrilege to his adoring fans, perhaps even deeply unpleasant, it can only arguably renew interest in the very things it was also espousing, the art of a good well-timed joke, of lost music halls and theatres, of which there were painfully many going by list that flashed up every so often during the two hour film and of course Tommy Cooper himself. For too many years now and you only have to look at some of the replies people make online in a vague attempt to be 21st Century funny, that too them Tommy Cooper was unfunny as the 60s and 70s were drab; a completely unfair accusation to a man who packed theatres up and down the country for over 30 years.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of Simon Nye’s script, those who perhaps watched Mr. Cooper pass on that night at Her Majesty’s Theatre could not help but transported back to a time when comedy was more gentle, less sarcastic, to watching a great man fall apart through loneliness and the two women who, perhaps with dignity on their parts kept him alive longer than he may have actually done.
With David Threlfall portraying remarkably superbly Tommy Cooper at the height of his popularity and the downward spiral of his life as he descended into drink and ill health, it was perhaps with no surprise that the two stars of the biopic were Amanda Redman and Helen McCrory as Gwen ‘Dove’ Cooper and Mary Kay respectively. Both actors played their parts with great poise and a keen sense of gracefulness which is a great testament to the two women left behind.
Comedy may have moved on, it may have got smarter, more lean, sarcastic and sometimes utterly repugnant but the laughter of a generation was perfectly framed by Simon Nye’s script and aside from the many flaws Tommy Cooper had, something as viewers we all share, even those who suggest on the outside that they are somehow perfect, he still had the unnerving natural talent in which to make people laugh. April 1984 is etched into the memory of thousands who watched the final few minutes of a comedian’s life and right to the end, he continued to make them laugh. Whilst there are always things that people don’t want to see played out before their eyes, Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This was compelling television.
Ian D. Hall