COOPER GAGS DIDN’T COME JUST LIKE THAT
TOMMY COOPER’S hand-written jokes are set to go on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) after it bought the late comic’s archive.
The Tommy Cooper Collection does not contain the Caerphilly-born star’s trademark red fez, but does feature props, posters and contracts, including those which went unfulfilled because of his sudden death following a heart attack on live TV in 1984.
It also features a metal cabinet containing Cooper’s hand-written jokes, filed alphabetically, of which only a small proportion were ever used.
Curators at the V&A said that the cabinet shed new light on the “previously unknown, scrupulously organised” working methods of the entertainer, best known for his bungling stage persona, absurd oneliners and his catchphrase, “just like that”.
The collection, purchased from a private collector, John Fisher, includes the comedian and magician’s writings and observations, some jotted down on the backs of posters and cardboard packaging.
Some of the 116 boxes of archive material will go on display at the V&A’s Theatre and Performance Galleries in the autumn.
The collection features stage props such as Cooper’s Head Twister illusion, details of early auditions at the BBC, personal correspondence, posters, theatre programmes and merchandise charting his career spanning almost four decades and a folio notebook full of his gags.
The museum already holds collections celebrating key figures in British comedy, including Ronnie Barker, Tony Hancock, Dame Edna Everage and Morecambe and Wise.
Vicky Cooper, the daughter of the late entertainer, said that her father would have been delighted to see his belongings stand alongside those of so many comedy greats.
“It is wonderful that the V&A has acquired the Tommy Cooper Collection and that the public will get to see some of his material on display later this year,” she said.
“I hope it brings as much enjoyment to people as he did when he was alive. My dad would be very proud knowing he was now represented in the National Collection of Theatre and Performance, sitting alongside the likes of Ronnie Barker’s archive and costumes worn by Morecambe and Wise and Stan Laurel.”
Tommy Cooper was born in Llwyn Onn Street, Caerphilly, in 1921.
The family moved from the area when he was a boy but his link with the South Wales town continues to be marked with a blue plaque at his childhood home and a statue in his honour near the castle.
The V&A said that it could not disclose how much it paid for the collection.