Tommy Cooper

With his bumbling magic act, tall stature, enormous feet and trademark fez, Tommy Cooper was one of our most recognisable and best-loved comedians for more than 30 years.

He was born in Caerphilly in South Wales in 1921 and the family moved to Exeter when he was three.

During a seven-year stint in the Royal Horse `Guards, which started when he was called up in 1940, he joined a forces concert party and developed an act that included magic and comedy - he’d learned how to do a bit of magic when an aunt bought him a magic set when he was little.

Doing his act in Cairo, he reached out and took a fez from a passing waiter and put it on his own head. The laugh it raised meant its was part of the act from then on.

When he was demobbed,  he embarked straight away on a showbiz career - doing dozens of shows a week in variety theatres around the country…working his way up the bill to achieve star billing as the man whose magic tricks went wrong.

Then came television with shows on London Weekend and Thames - but his heavy drinking and increasing unreliability saw them eventually being pulled and he was confined to guest appearances on other shows.

And on one such programme in 1984- Live from Her Majesty’s - came his death on live television. Suffering a heart attack, he fell backwards into the curtains..the tv audience of millions not realising what had happened. To widespread shock, he was dead at the age of 63.

He was one of the leading names of classic British variety - his bungling tricks, ‘Just like that’ catchphrase, and corny one-liners ..of the ‘a dyslexic man walks into a bra’ variety..made him one of our comedy greats.