Tommy Cooper's Death

They said nothing at all, All the acts afterward performed in front of the curtain. So you knew something had happened.

No, he came off stage and collapsed almost immediately in the wings.


The feet thing is a misremembering on Tarbuck's part. As you can see from the end of that clip, the curtain is hurriedly used to try and conceal Tommy but it took a little time before enough people could be summoned to physically pull him back behind it. The theatre audience would have seen his legs from under the curtain for a while, but he was fully concealed from view before the show came back from the break.

I can understand you point of direction, and yes it was graphic, and dreadful, but it can;t change the way I took the clip.



Unless I have got Sid James mixed up with him?

I can remember watching Eric was on stage, he really did not wanted to go on, at the end he got a round of applause, he went back stage, but went back out again ( I believe just before he went back out he said to someone " this is going kill me one day") I take it it was when he come back for the second Applause he suffered his heart attack?

it was sid james who actually died on stage but it wasn't televised.

there are lots of deaths on live tv on you tube if you have the morbid curiocity to look for them

there's even footage of Vic Morrow's death whilst filming the twlight zone in the 1980's that is very graffic

what I think is a bit sick is some home made videos which take the p out of something like Tommy cooper dieing live on tv, there were lot of fake vidoes on steve iwin when he died even though the actual footage was never in the public domain and was deleted after the investigation into his death

i think it best the link was removed, as a moderator my self it was a wise move so as not to cause offence or upset to his family or friends, what you tube do is up to them

Eric Morecambe died after a non-televised appearance at the Roses Theatre in Tewkesbury. Photos taken of Morecambe on stage that night (before he collapsed) have been used in a TV documentary, though, which might lead people to think that they actually saw that final show on TV.

Morecambe's appearance was with the comedian Stan Stennett, who interviewed him about his life and career. By all accounts it was a great night with Morecambe on "top form" (incidentally he touched on Tommy Cooper's death just six weeks earlier, saying that he'd hate to go like that), and he went on to do an amazing six curtain calls. It was after the sixth that he walked offstage, said "Thank goodness that's over", and collapsed. The audience was in the process of leaving when someone rushed onstage and shouted "Is there a doctor in the house?"

I remember watching the show and when everyone piled on the stage at the end, I said to my parents where is Tommy Cooper, I hope he is ok after seeing him collapse.

Being 8 I was told not to be so stupid, he probably had to leave early, and told it was bed time.

The next morning I heard what had happened and was upset I had seen a man die and also being laughed at as people thought is was in the act. I won't visit the video as I still vaguely remember it happening and the memory is obviously not pleasant and have no wish to see it again.

I don't think there's anything wrong in putting up a link to the clip or watching it. It has been described enough times on screen and in print, and the collapse is hardly graphic.

Ultimately it is part of TV history, a very famous part and whilst I have the upmost respect for Tommy Cooper, I'm not ashamed to say that I have searched for the clip to see if it existed before. NOT to witness the death of a very talented performer but to see how the production company dealt with it, which after all is what this forum is about. Indeed if you look at the comments on this thread, most are asking to see the second part to see how it was dealt with after. There is nothing morbid about that, it is just the thing which we all have in common: our interest in television presentation.

I was curious as to what happened for a few years but I found the link on YouTube a few months ago.

Even though I was curious I found the video extremely upsetting and I regretted ever watching it and won't be again.

I urge people who are having doubts on watching it not to, unless you can stomach seeing a great British institution suffer and die on stage while people laugh and clap.

They were not to know he was dying, I thought it was part of the act initially, then I realised after 2 seconds. Although it is horrific and I was quite upset by it. Although people that say it shouldn't be on YouTube are being a bit eccentric, on a similar note, are they saying they'd rather the News channels didn't air footage of 9/11?

According to John Fisher's book on Tommy Cooper, "Always Leave Them Laughing", Jimmy Tarbuck was waiting behind the curtain to come on stage. Tommy was about to do his famous cloack sketch which would have seen various props followed by Jimmy Tarbuck appearing from it, when he collapsed. The production team and Tommy's son, Thomas, were all backstage and when Thomas was asked if the collapse was planned, he said that it wasn't as his dad suffered from back trouble. It was then that the awful reality dawned. There is a story that Howard Keel was one of the acts on after Tommy and as they hadn't been able to move him, Keel was asked if he wouldn't mind performing at the front of the stage. His reply, which had Jimmy Tarbuck in fits of laughter, was "I'll sing in the f**king aisle if that's what Tommy wants."

I certainly remember watching Tommy's act that night on TV, and his collapse. What the clip doesn't show was him making a snoring-like sound (which was later found to be the death rattle) after he collapsed, followed by the camera pulling back and the titles for the commercial break being flashed up. As I was nine years old at the time I didn't think any more about what had happened until the ITN News came on immediately after the show had ended and it was announced as the main item that Tommy Cooper had died.

When Eric Morecambe died six weeks later I remember thinking "not again", as his death was in almost identical circumstances.

LWT Pres had to alert the regions to show adverts with many regions receiving a black screen.

In fact you can hear the death rattle (the sound of lungs collapsing, I assume) - which is what I alluded to when I had that dreadful experience a decade and a half ago.

I know I've made my point, possibly too much - but I can say, hand on heart, that it has never ever left my memory - and I think its downright irresponsible to expose people to that with a direct link - copy and paste or clickable.

Yes its on YouTube, as are a billion other videos - which the user must proactively search for. Its quite different to have it so ready for people as young as 10 and 12 who browse here. These things can have very different impacts on different types of people.

As to it being a matter of "uniqueness" or television presentation - well, they went to a commercial and carried on with the show. There's nothing more to learn.

I don't mean to insult anyone - but I do feel strongly about it, to the extent that I'm keen to dissuade anyone who hasn't looked and is considering.

I'll say no more about it.