Tommy Cooper

More of Tommy Cooper's trademark hats up for auction

Two more fezzes worn by Tommy Cooper are going under the hammer - with experts expecting them to fetch up to £3,000 each.

American comic Isabel Klein gets an introduction to Tommy Cooper

He brought true magic to the stage, making people believe in the impossible. As a person who is also described by friends as an original eccentric, I hope to bring a little magic to Edinburgh as well.

Tommy Cooper's niece was found dead after brutal stabbing

Tony King, 59, has pleaded guilty to her murder.

So, did the battered old fez that sold for £5,000 on the first episode of Channel 4's new series, The Greatest Auction, ever actually sit on comedian Tommy Cooper's head?

The programme, aired for the first time last week, is a kind of Bidding Room on steroids, with the gentility of Nigel Havers nowhere to be seen. Items up for sale included a slab of wall and plaster possibly adorned with a Banksy, which went for £250,000, and some old pickled pigs' foetuses from a science lab (£1,200).

The show made much of how the person selling the fez had once been "the Voice of Swimming". What wasn't mentioned was how former TV commentator Hamilton "Hammy" Bland was sacked by the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) and the BBC in 1998 over allegations he has taken "secret commissions" - aka bribes - from pool builders in his role as an adviser to the sport's governing body and local councils.

Bland, now 79, denied the allegations, but he never worked for the ASA or BBC again. Instead, he set up a memorabilia company, Sportizus, which at one point enjoyed a £5m turnover and had 19 branches flogging paraphernalia and photographys purportedly owned or signed by the famous. Bland's firm ceased trading in 2005. More recently, the former swimming coach has been busy as an auctionner at charity fundraisers.

Perhaps the "Tommy Cooper fez" was surplus stock? On The Greatest Auction, Bland said he'd had the item in his possession for some time, and that he acquired it from a widow in Blackpool whose husband had been given it by the comedian in lieu of payment for a service. A letter from the widow, not shown on the broadcast programme, saying the fez was from Cooper was the only provenance for the itme. Bland seemed happy enough, though, as the fez sold for almost twice his reserve price. Just like that!

The Greatest Auction's approach to verification is a tad laissez faire. The painting on the bit of wall was onlu ever referred to as "attributed to Banksy". Various "experts" offered opinions. Pest Control, the organisation established by Banksy to authenticate his works, won't give its seal of approval to any street art because there are so many fakes around. But they were not mentioned by the programme makers. Do the latter know something they didn't tell the viewers?

Tommy Cooper's fez auctioned off in new C4 show

Will the comic's iconic headgear make its £3,250 reserve?

Man indicates not guilty plea to murder of Tommy Cooper's niece

Tony King was arrested in the early hours of Monday and was charged with murder on Tuesday.