Tommy Cooper

Tommy Cooper: genius or fool?

Thirty years after his death, David Quantick pays tribute to an unlikely comedy god.

Tommy Cooper's genius was in the love behind the laughs

Love. Now there's a word at the heart of all the laughter he brought. And one sadly absent from so much of the comedy that followed him.

Tommy Cooper - Flawed Genius

Thomas Frederick Cooper, born on 19 March 1921 in Caerphilly, Wales, was not born big. In fact the midwife said he was a weakling.

Audio: Memories of Tommy Cooper 30 years after he died

Thirty years ago today Caerphilly-born comedian Tommy Cooper died of a heart attack while performing live on TV.

Tudor Jones, a former comedy script writer and secretary of the Tommy Cooper Society, talked about his memories of the performer on BBC Radio Wales.

Interview: Jason Manford on Tommy Cooper

It's become a cliche that the audience are laughing before he spoke, but they actually were.

Interesting objects: Tommy Cooper's fez

Sophisticated men with style used to wear a fez as part of their luxury smoking garb. Cooper transformed it into a comedy prop.

ITV biopic focuses on alcoholic side of Tommy Cooper

His fans loved him but a new biopic of the comedian explores his darker side as a violent alcoholic who couldn't choose between his wife and mistress.

Ah, those were the days, when Christmas specials featured frilly-shirted Sacha Distel and Clodagh Rodgers in a hostess gown singing cheesy songs in front of skinny TV studio Christmas trees. In this 1973 special these musical interludes break up Tommy Cooper's comedy business of pratfalls and carefully choreographed ineptitude, and some terrible sketches - one involving a game of billiards played with a golf club feels like it goes on for ten years.

But there's a certain piquancy to all of this, as David Threlfall will shortly play Cooper in an ITV bio-drama. Cooper and his comedy have developed a patina of affectionate cool in the years since his death, so it's the perfect chance to see why he endures.

Pub favoured by classic comics faces demolition

A London pub that became a 'Mecca for comedy' as a favourite haunt of Tommy Cooper, Tony Hancock and Sid James faces demolition as a hotel group plans to raze a huge part of Leicester Square's conservation area and turn it into a 360-bedroom, 10-story hotel and cinema complex.

Tommy Cooper's magic props to be used in ITV biopic

David Threlfall will play the legendary comedian in his original home - using props found in the attic.