Tommy Cooper

Tommy Cooper's last act fooled us all

Millions tuned in to watch the hit variety show Live From Her Majesty's, only to see Tommy Cooper suffer a massive fatal heart attack right there on stage.

Nathan Bevan, Wales Online, 12th April 2009

Cooper's breathless speed with a story has by now, after years of practice, reached the limit of the intelligible. [...] Cooper does the opposite of milking a gag. He puts milk back in.

Clive James, The Observer, 30th June 1974

Everybody likes Cooper. He has the huge dignity and innocence of some large London statue with a pigeon sitting impudently on its head and a workman scrubbing him in impertinent places with a stiff bristled brush.

Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian, 25th April 1974