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by **Mandrake** » Apr 17th, '14, 17:46

10.00pm Sunday 20th April, ITV1, Alan Davies explores the life of Harry Houdini and attempts a few of his famous stunts.

9.00pm Monday 21st April, ITV1, 'Tommy Cooper, not like that, like this'. David Threlfall portrays Tommy at the time his need to tour was stronger than staying at home where his Wife was looking after their young family, the inevitable affair with his Stage Manager/Assistant Mary Kay features heavily as does his final demise on stage 30 years ago. I've only seen stills but Threlfall looks nothing like Tommy, more like a nightmare impression of him, although apparently he put in a lot of time learning some of Tommy's most famous tricks.

Both well worth recording and watching methinks.....

by **mr invisible** » Apr 18th, '14, 08:19

Shall be glued to the TV this weekend. Can't wait for the Tommy Cooper programme, should be interesting.

by **Mandrake** » Apr 18th, '14, 08:58

I just hope they don't do a hatchet job on him. I've read a lot of biographies about him -John Fisher seems to have written dozens of them. He had a very dark side due to his dependence on alcohol and medication for various ailments but he was a consumate and highly professional performer who loved to be on stage entertaining people - that's the Tommy I want to remember.

by **JustCraig** » Apr 18th, '14, 20:25

Looking forward to watching them both!

by **Mandrake** » Apr 21st, '14, 19:34

I just watched the Houdini programme and sadly a lot of his life wasn't mentioned, certainly not his crusade against fake mediums and similar in later life but I must admit I never heard about the monkey glands being attached to his, er, body before!

For a one hour programme there could have been a bit more historical info included but, even so, still something well worth watching.

by **mr invisible** » Apr 22nd, '14, 07:37

Mandrake wrote:I just watched the Houdini programme and sadly a lot of his life wasn't mentioned, certainly not his crusade against fake mediums and similar in later life but I must admit I never heard about the monkey glands being attached to his, er, body before!

For a one hour programme there could have been a bit more historical info included but, even so, still something well worth watching.

Totally agree with those comments Paul.. I have a lot of his books, and don't think I have seen anything related to other body parts attached to his persons??

by **Mandrake** » Apr 23rd, '14, 12:43

The Tommy Cooper drama certainly made for uncomfortable viewing at times, very much a Jekyll and Hyde aspect of a performer who will never be forgotten. No doubt timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of Tommy’s very public death on stage and live TV, this drama has stirred more than a few emotions.

It was based on a John Fisher biography of a few years ago and, as John is known to have great respect for Tommy, it was disturbing to see the stone lifted on the less appealing aspects. The written biography revealed a lot more of those aspects so I guess we need to be grateful that the TV version was comparatively more restrained.

The portrayal of Tommy’s gradual personal decline in terms of health and family relationships was a cautionary tale indeed - possibly made easier to screen as the main characters, with the exception of his daughter Vicky, are all dead. Vicky has, understandably, stated that the drama wasn’t true in many respects, especially the violence side of things. She maintains that Tommy would hit things, not people and certainly not his wife. According to various other biographies, the TV drama version was probably more accurate in that respect

The portrayal of Tommy as a skinflint may be true, especially the part about his visiting Ken Brooke’s shop, trying stuff out and then not buying it. However he spent a fortune on buying gags, even from very exclusive gag writers who catered for Bob Hope and similar – Tommy was the only UK customer for many of them. As another bit of counterbalance in other biographies it’s stated that he had a standing order to buy all the new items which arrived in Ken Brooke’s shop and have them shipped to wherever he was appearing. Not sure about casting Jason Manford as Ken but no doubt there were good reasons. Other portrayals were good – Eric Morecambe was a very visual portrayal, Eric Sykes less so and the Les Dennis one somewhat wide of the mark!

I’ve left David Threlfall’s portrayal of Tommy until last, I wasn’t too sure about it when the show was being promoted but, having viewed the show a couple of times, I have to say it was a superb work of acting. OK, at times he didn’t seem to fit my memories of Tommy but at others he was spot on. When he was performing Tommy’s classic routines he was every inch Tommy Cooper to a T, the pauses, the mannerisms and a load of little subtleties were all there to bring the character to life – and death – very accurately indeed One TV critic said that, at times, Threlfall looked as though he was doing an impression of Cooper – but Cooper was also doing an impression of himself all his working life. The re-enactment of Tommy’s death on stage was quite chilling, made all the more so as people thought it was part of the act and laughed as he died. What wasn’t shown was that, until the next scheduled commercial break, Tommy’s body had to lie on stage and behind the curtain whilst the other acts did their best to carry on. It’s illegal to move a body under such circumstances and even though paramedics were doing all they could it was obvious he was dead.

I’m going to leave it a few days then watch the drama again to see if there’s anything else to glean from it but, despite my initial misgivings, it was still good TV drama – disturbing, but good.