Tommy Cooper: Always Leave Them Laughing: The Definitive Biography of a Comedy Legend

Tommy Cooper: Always Leave Them Laughing: The Definitive Biography of a Comedy Legend
John Fisher

The first ever intimate portrait of Britain’s best-loved, but little known, comedy entertainer. Fully authorised, and written by Cooper’s friend and colleague John Fisher.More than just a comedian, Tommy Cooper was a born entertainer. Working in a golden age of British comedy, Cooper stood – literally – head and shoulders above the crowd, and had a magical talent for humour that defied description.But there was a man behind the laughter that few people saw. John Fisher was Cooper's friend and colleague and witnessed first-hand the moments of self-doubt and inadequacy that contrasted with the genial exterior. Until his tragic death on live television in 1984, Tommy Cooper lived in constant fear of the day he would be found out by his audience. He could never accept the accolades that came so thick and fast from every direction, and died to the sounds of laughter that he never really believed.Supplementing his own intimate knowledge with material accessed for the first time from the archives of Cooper's agent and manager, Miff Ferrie, and with the full co-operation of the Cooper family, John Fisher's warm, honest and insightful writing skilfully brings alive the man behind the comedic mask in this definitive biography of a comedy legend.

Tommy Cooper

Always Leave Them Laughing

JOHN FISHER

For Gwen,

For Vicky,

And for Henry & Doris Lewis,

who also had a daughter named Victoria.

Contents

List of Illustrations (#u25c86149-6375-5743-9769-79e36fea086d)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

Preface: (#u90f78cb6-266e-5911-af84-1d1df3660ab1)

‘I Didn’t Let You Down, Did I?’ (#u90f78cb6-266e-5911-af84-1d1df3660ab1)

1 All in the Branding (#ub193c5c2-27c7-5d6c-bd0c-80e54a20d74a)

2 Laughing Over Spilt Milk (#uac2e6be3-33c8-5997-ac9e-f03b1e39d2d3)

3 ‘Let Me See Your Dots’ (#u7da07f15-a85a-5d25-9f3a-c4bc15aec3df)

4 Life Gets More Exciting . . . (#u9339f445-ca71-5bd7-82eb-aa5730c26022)

5 Mad About Magic (#u0944df8b-0eb1-58f9-b48f-c8dc82338da2)

6 Comic Ways and Means (#litres_trial_promo)

7 The Steady Climb (#litres_trial_promo)

8 Cooper Vision: Part One (#litres_trial_promo)

9 Cooper Vision: Part Two (#litres_trial_promo)

10 Method in the Madness (#litres_trial_promo)

11 Health and Home Affairs (#litres_trial_promo)

12 The Days Dwindle Down (#litres_trial_promo)

13 Death and Resurrection (#litres_trial_promo)

14 The Real Me (#litres_trial_promo)

Index (#litres_trial_promo)

List of Illustrations (#uc4885778-0f4b-51d2-a7d1-827980508e0e)

Section One

1 Tommy’s parents, Thomas and Gertrude Cooper, circa 1920s. (Private Collection)

2 Three years old and ready for play. (Private Collection)

3 Eighteen years old and ready for the world. (Private Collection)

4 Enjoying a bottle and a glass off duty in Egypt in 1947. (Private Collection)

5 Gwen (far left), star of her wartime concert party. (Private Collection)

6 Tommy and Gwen, just prior to their wedding in Cyprus, 1947. (Private Collection)

7 The early publicity pose that defined an image. (Rimis Ltd)

8 Miff Ferrie: agent, manager, Svengali. (Rimis Ltd)

9 Later publicity pose when success was assured. (Robert Harper)

10 Baby Vicky seems unimpressed. (Chris Ware/Hulton Getty)

11 11. With baby Thomas in the garden at Chiswick. (Private Collection)

12 ‘Frankie and Bruce and Tommy’s Christmas Show’, 1966. (Fremantle Media)

13 ‘Do you like football?’ (Mirrorpix)

14 ‘Bucket, sand! Sand, bucket!’ (Hulton Getty)

15 Time to relax with the famous feet up at home. (Private Collection)

16 A sensation on the Ed Sullivan Show, New York, 1967. (Private Collection)

17 ‘When autumn leaves start to fall …’ (Fremantle Media)

18 ‘And ven zey are caught everyone vill be shot …’ (Fremantle Media)

19 Funny bones: with Anita Harris, promoting Tommy’s Palladium show, 1971. (Private Collection)