Tommy Cooper's Death

Now that you've mentioned it, I think I remember the blank screen for around 15-30 seconds before the adverts appeared.

I'm sorry to say that the 'rattle' is fairly audible, but I have to completely agree with Whataday - I wouldn't search for a man dying. We are all TV pres fans and it's situations like this when we'd like to see what happens.

For those who argue that it was disrepectful for the audience to laugh and applaud, bare in mind that Cooper (seemingly intentional) lost his balance before revealing the dove which set the tone a little bit, and the appearance on Tarbuck's hand popping out from behind the curtain may have come across as humorous; you can hear an increase in laugher when his hand appears.

But notice when the music begins and the laughter dies down, the audience are still confused by what's happened, and you can sense that the applause is half-hearted.

That would make sense if you were not in the London area. LWT will have had the benefit of live talkback from the OB, so knew to run the break regardless of the dots. For the rest of the country, presumably it will either have been a hasty call on the Red Phone or local TCs using their own instinct.

As has been said, the sound is clearly audible. And the clip linked to in this thread is not the one that's been on YouTube for a while now, it's a new one that's very obviously been taken from an original off-air recording. It includes the preceding couple of minutes of Tommy's act (in which it's clear that he's not himself, in fact there's one bit where he says "I'll be alright in a minute" where you have to wonder if it was part of the act or not) and then everything that follows up to and including the first advert in the break (for the Acorn Electron).

On the matter of whether or not the clip should be linked or even available at all... it's a piece of TV history. If it was unaired footage that had been leaked, then that would be different, but it happened live on TV, which makes it a matter of public record. And so much has been written about it in the subsequent years (including various myths) that it's entirely understandable that people who didn't see it at the time would want to see it for themselves. Anyone who tries to judge others for watching it is misguided IMO.

would there not be a second feed going down to the 14 local operations room which could show a clock as to how long there have got?

Que dots should have given other companies plenty of notice for someone to be on the mark to push the ad button

Not in those days, unless my memory is playing tricks! A regional contractor would have the Network Line feed from London, which would have been carrying the output of the OB. I would expect that on a normal night the line would have carried on showing vision from the OB for a while, until they cut up the VT clock on the Start of Part titles, ready to run it at the appointed time. Given what was going on, I'd guess either the OB or LWT Pres might have put the feed to black, to make sure it wasn't going out anywhere, but that's only a guess - they may have been too busy.

I don't see that anyone has done that. Saying it is a bad idea to present it to children reading along is entirely different.

Just noticed this, and FWIW, the 1993 British Comedy Awards tape has never been "locked away" and there have never been any access restrictions on it. There may well have been usage restrictions in respect of Clary's appearance, but the actual tape has always been available to any production that wanted to order it up.

The Cooper tape, on the other hand, has always had access restrictions applied AFAIK. It's accessible, but only after making a case at a senior level.

Who was the blonde woman on stage with him?

I've just been to see the clip you mention, and it's exactly as I remember seeing Tommy's collapse back in 1984. The clip which has been up on Youtube for a while cuts out just after Tommy falls back, but this one confirms my recollections of the event. Sorry if I confused you all.

Some random assistant I assume.

I won't be clicking the link. I remember watching it at the time and it upset me greatly then. At first I thought it was part of his act, but within a few seconds i knew something was wrong.
It is a bit ghoulish to have the link on here. I'm not entirely happy about it, it's not the sort of thing we should expose the younger members of the forum to, but that is just the way my moral compass swings.