Tommy Cooper

If all footage of Tommy Cooper's performances was destroyed and future generations were left with just this drama to try to work out the reason for his popularity, they would be completely stumped.

A heavy drinker, tight-fisted, physically abusive and (on the evidence here at least) not even especially funny, Cooper is an unlikely candidate for national treasure status.

Shameless star David Threlfall delivers an extraordinary performance as the comedian, recreating his act and his patter to an uncanny extent.

But Simon Nye's script, based on John Fisher's 2006 biography, zeroes in on the scandal in his personal life, and his 17-year affair with assistant Mary Kay (Helen McCrory).

Kay first joined Cooper on tour in the 1960s when his wife Gwen, ­nicknamed Dove (Amanda Redman), opted to stay at home with their children.

Cooper never told Dove he'd hired a replacement, and it would take a much more naïve person than me to think a middle-aged male comedian could travel the country with just his attractive female assistant for company and NOT end up having an affair with them.

By the time of Cooper's death on stage on 1984, you've gone right off him. Threlfall, on the other hand, is absolutely tremendous.

Six famous faces celebrate Tommy Cooper

Why are we still laughing at Tommy Cooper 30 years after he died on stage? Barry Cryer, Paul Daniels, Johnny Vegas, Tim Vine, Brian Conley and Jason Manford explain.

Amanda Redman on playing Tommy Cooper's wife

"It's about his double life - the stress, boozing and the hard work - all of which ultimately killed him"

Radio Times review

David Threlfall delivers a tour de force as Tommy Cooper, undergoing a transformation that's much deeper than just the donning of a fez.

Cooper's studied incompetence with magic tricks made him a star, but Simon Nye's script centres on Cooper's relationships with two women, his volatile and long-suffering wife Dove (Amanda Redman) and his mistress Mary Kay (Helen McCrory).

Cooper is hard to like - he drinks too much, he's tight with money and he's physically abusive - and by the end of two hours your patience may have run dry.

But Threlfall and Nye work hard to show why Cooper inspired abiding loyalty in both women, and in his friends and fellow comedians, right until that final show when he collapses on stage in front of a TV audience, an extraordinary 15 minutes from Threlfall who does the act note for note.

'My dad Tommy Cooper was not an alcoholic wife-beater'

In her first interview since 2000, Tommy Cooper's only surviving child Vicky blasts the two-hour show - Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This - as "all lies".

Tommy Cooper fans' fury at YouTube death footage

Tommy Cooper fans have slammed YouTube for failing to stop disturbing footage of the comedian's death being shown on its site.

David Threlfall on Tommy Cooper

He can never remember jokes and he can't do magic - so how did Shameless star David Threlfall fill the shoes of Tommy Cooper for ITV's new biopic, Not Like That, Like This?

TV loves a tragic stand-up... but who's next?

We've had Kenneth Williams, Kenny Everett, Frankie Howerd and Steptoe & Son - now Tommy Cooper is getting the tears-of-a-clown dramatic treatment.

Son of Tommy Cooper's mistress talks about comedian's dark side

Shameless actor David Threlfall plays Tommy Cooper in a one-off drama series which pulls no punches but - according to Tony Kay, the son of Cooper's mistress - neither did he.

The film that could shatter Tommy Cooper's good name

Harrowing scenes of domestic abuse are part of an eye-opening new drama at the centre of ITV's Easter Weekend schedules.