Tommy Cooper statue set to be unveiled

Tommy Cooper, the legendary comic magician, will receive a long-overdue recognition from his home town of Caerphilly in south Wales later today.

Cooper, a proud Welshman "from the top of his black curly hair to the bottom of his size 13 boots", entertained millions throughout his career, largely based on his magical ineptitude. But despite this apparent conjurer's incompetence, Cooper was in fact a highly skilled magician and member of The Magic Circle.

A statue sculpted by James Done will be unveiled by Cooper fan and Hollywood star Sir Anthony Hopkins in the centre of Caerphilly, opposite the town's castle, at noon on Saturday 23rd February.

The 9ft bronze statue - seated on a 4ft plinth (2.7m and 1.2m respectively) - has been organised by the Tommy Cooper Society, who raised £45,000 to pay for the memorial.

The society was established five years ago with the sole aim of having a statue erected in Caerphilly to commemorate the entertainer.

In front of a television audience, Tommy Cooper died on stage at Her Majesty's Theatre (now home to The Phantom of the Opera) in 1984. The tragic event was witnessed on live TV by millions of viewers on Sunday 15th April of that year, when the comic suffered a massive heart attack and collapsed mid-way through his routine on the popular ITV variety programme Live From Her Majesty's. Famously, much of the audience continued in hysterics, thinking that his collapse was part of the act.