[5][6] To change from his mining role in Caerphilly, which could have had implications for his health, his father accepted the offer of a new job and the family moved to Exeter, Devon, when Cooper was three.

[8] In the 1960s his brother David (born 1930)[9] opened D. & Z. Cooper's Magic Shop at 249 High Street in Slough, Buckinghamshire.

Cooper became a member of a Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI) entertainment party, and developed an act around his magic tricks interspersed with comedy.

One evening in Cairo, during a sketch in which he was supposed to be in a costume that required a pith helmet, having forgotten the prop Cooper reached out and borrowed a fez from a passing waiter, which got huge laughs.

[citation needed] Cooper was influenced by Laurel and Hardy,[15] Will Hay,[16] Max Miller,[15] Bob Hope,[15] and Robert Orben.

[18] By the mid-1970s alcohol had started to erode Cooper's professionalism and club owners complained that he turned up late or rushed through his show in five minutes.

In addition he suffered from chronic indigestion, lumbago, sciatica, bronchitis and severe circulation problems in his legs.

[23] An assistant had helped him put on a cloak for his sketch, while Jimmy Tarbuck, the host, was hiding behind the stage curtains waiting to pass him different props that he would then appear to pull from inside his gown.

Around this time, Jimmy Tarbuck, Alasdair MacMillan (the director of the television production), and the crew behind the curtain who witnessed the incident realised that what was happening to him was not part of the act.

In the wings, show producer David Bell asked Cooper's son if the fall was part of the act.

[25] After it became apparent that Cooper was in trouble, Alasdair MacMillan cued the orchestra to play music for an unscripted commercial break (noticeable because of several seconds of blank screen while LWT's master control contacted regional stations to start transmitting advertisements)[23] and Tarbuck's manager tried to pull Cooper back through the curtains.

Dustin Gee and Les Dennis were the act that had to follow Cooper and performed in the limited space in front of the curtains.

Two stools were positioned either side of the protrusion from behind the curtain where Cooper had collapsed, whilst efforts were being made to revive him.

His death was not officially reported until the next morning, although the incident was the leading item on the news programme that followed the show.

Cooper's funeral was held at Mortlake Crematorium in London, and his son scattered his ashes in the back garden, over his father's favourite daffodils.

The programme featured Cooper's daughter, Vicky, who gave her first television interview following years of abstaining "because of the grief".

In February 2007 The Independent reported that Andy Harries, a producer of The Queen, was working on a dramatisation of the last week of Cooper's life.

From a screenplay by Simon Nye, Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This was directed by Benjamin Caron and the title role was played by David Threlfall.

To train for the role Mantle mastered many of Cooper's magic tricks, studying under Geoffrey Durham for several months.

[47] Being Tommy Cooper, a new play written by Tom Green and starring Damian Williams, was produced by Franklin Productions and toured the UK in 2013.