|
|
|
Tommy Cooper Collection (The)
R2 - United Kingdom - Network Review written by and copyright: Paul Lewis (28th September 2008). |
|
The Film
 I must open this review with a highly subjective declaration: I love Tommy Cooper’s brand of comedy. I really do. This new collection from Network brings together Network’s previous DVD releases of The Tommy Cooper Hour (from 1973) and Cooper’s final solo series, Cooper, Just Like That! (from 1978). These are packaged alongside the 1975 show Cooper. The set thus contains all of Cooper’s solo television series from the 1970s. Cooper, Just Like That! was transmitted in 1978, a year after Cooper’s first heart attack, and there’s a visible difference between the vivacious and energetic routines Cooper performs in Cooper (including some wonderful sketches) and his far more ‘tired’ appearance in Cooper, Just Like That! The shows are also different in other ways: in Cooper each episode features a number of elaborate sketches including, in the first episode, a very funny sketch involving Cooper arriving for a new job as a waiter and there is also the ongoing talk-show parody ‘Fez To Fez’. By contrast, Cooper, Just Like That! is a mostly stage-bound experience, and in my view the loss of the sketch/situation-based humour is to the detriment of the latter series: in Cooper the sketches serve to break up the rapid-fire monologues and one-liners that Cooper delivers to the audience, offering up a much more varied form of comedy. Cooper is a delight: the mixture of some great situation-based comedy, rapid-fire gags and off-the-cuff magic tricks is hugely enjoyable. In truth, the only ‘dated’ aspect of the show is its use of musical guests, something which tends to date most light entertainment shows. Here, the musical guests range from Lynsey De Paul to the then-popular beat combo ‘Reflections’. There’s also a recurring gag involving an Oliver Hardy lookalike and the aforementioned talk show parody ‘Fez To Fez’. Good stuff! Below, I have reproduced our original review of Cooper, Just Like That!, which can also be found online here. (Sadly, review copies of The Tommy Cooper Hour were unavailable to us, so the full details of that release cannot be reproduced here; however, from memory it’s easy to say that The Tommy Cooper Hour was easily as good as Cooper). Cooper (1975) Show One: 15/10/1975 (24:41) Show Two: 22/10/1975 (24:56) Show Three: 29/10/1975 (25:08) Show Four: 05/11/1975 (24:44) Show Five: 12/11/1975 (25:08) Show Six: 19/11/1975 (23:29) Cooper, Just Like That! (1978) Show One: 11/09/78 (25:21) Show Two: 18/09/78 (24:36) Show Three: 25/09/78 (21:00) Show Four: 02/10/78 (24:31) Show Five: 09/10/78 (23:57) Show Six: 16/10/78 (25:00) This release from Network contains all six episodes of Tommy Cooper’s series Cooper, Just Like That!, produced by Thames Television and screened in late 1978. (Network’s sleeve carries the title Tommy Cooper: Just Like That!, presumably as a means of clarifying that the show doesn’t feature Henry Cooper’s excursion into television comedy and stage magic. Stage direction: insert Tommy Cooper-style laugh here, along with a musical ‘stinger’.) Cooper’s legacy in British comedy is long-lasting: in a 2004 poll by Reader’s Digest magazine, he was voted the ‘funniest Briton’, above many contemporary comedians such as Peter Kay and Lee Evans. Cooper’s career in television comedy began in 1947, after he left the army, with his appearance on the BBC television talent show New To You; the show was the springboard of many of the best-loved comedians and comic performers within post-war Britain, including Tony Hancock (who debuted on the show in November of 1948), Peter Sellers (who appeared in May of 1948) and Bob Monkhouse (who made his television debut on New To You in January of 1948). Cooper’s first solo television show came in 1952 with the production of It’s Magic for the BBC. However, Cooper’s relationship with the BBC was relatively short-lived, and from the 1957 sketch-based series Cooper (or Life With Tommy) Cooper would dedicate himself to working for ITV, and most of his subsequent shows were produced by Thames Television. His death came tragically in 1984, during a live televised performance on ITV’s variety show Live From Her Majesty’s, when Cooper collapsed and died from a heart attack; the moment is seared into the memories of those watching, as the audience thought that Cooper’s heart attack was part of the act. At the time, Cooper’s death felt like the end of an era of British comedy, as during the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s television was already feeling the move away from the post-war ‘establishment’ comedians towards the work of the more openly political ‘alternative’ comedians such as Ben Elton and Alexei Sayle. However, as I noted in my comments on Network’s DVD release of the alternative comedy show The Very Best of Friday Night Live, there are more parallels between the work of the ‘establishment’ comedians and the alternative comedians of the 1980s than, at the time, either group might have cared to consider. Either way, Cooper’s iconic fez and his trademark magician’s pose (hands outstretched, and associated with a gruff declaration of ‘Just like that’) are for many iconic of that period of post-war British comedy. If you’ll allow me to digress for a moment into a personal anecdote, I remember that during my childhood, when Cooper was still at the peak of his popularity, my grandmother couldn’t stand Cooper’s brand of humour: she was a fan of Dick Emery, and Cooper’s gruff delivery and his brand of deliberately inept magic (although, it must be noted, Cooper was actually a member of the Magic Circle and a very talented magician) grated on her nerves. Out of a strong sense of irony that Cooper himself might have appreciated, my grandfather (who was a huge fan of Cooper) put up a picture of Cooper in my grandparents’ lavatory: the picture was of Cooper, in fez, with his hands outstretched in his trademark pose, and the caption ‘Just Like That’ printed beneath. That kind of digression is the type of aside that is central to Cooper’s comedy, which often consists of comments to non-existent stagehands as his magic tricks go hilariously wrong (in a way that could only be enabled by the most careful planning), or by the frequent non-sequiturs in his comic monologues. This series, Cooper, Just Like That!, came in 1978, a year after Cooper had suffered his first heart attack (in Rome, in 1977). The six-part series features a mixture of surreal comic monologues, Cooper’s trademark comic magic, live musical performances and sketches performed with the help of guest comedians. All of this is performed on stage, in front of a live audience. Cooper’s very funny here, but as compared with his work during the 1960s and early 1970s he seems a little sluggish at times. Cooper’s delivery of his lines had always been deliberately and comically incoherent (which is perhaps something that developed out of the strong sense of stagefright that Cooper reputedly experienced throughout his career), but in the late 1970s and through into the early 1980s sometimes Cooper’s trademark incoherence seemed incidental rather than deliberate, with key words being mumbled. Although this isn’t Cooper on top of his game, it’s still a consistently funny series. More than twenty years after his death, Cooper is still frequently imitated. If you don’t believe me, put a fez in a room and see how many people use it to perform an imitation of Cooper. Fez or no fez, hold out your hands as if performing a magic trick and hoarsely mumble, ‘Just like that’. You’ll feel better for it.
Video
The shows were recorded on stage, with a live audience, and shot on video. Quality is what you would expect from a VT-recorded show of this vintage. The episodes are presented in their original ratio of 4:3.
Audio
Audio is presented via a 2.0 mono track. Sound is clear; there are no problems here. There are no subtitles.
Extras
There are no extra features.
Overall
For the Tommy Cooper fan, this set represents great value for money. Cooper, Just Like That! may not represent Cooper’s best television work, but Cooper and The Tommy Cooper Hour are consistently good. For more information, please visit the homepage of Network DVD.
|
|||||
|