Tommy Cooper's Death

Quote: "When I go I want to be on stage I want the audience laughing and everyone happy." -Tommy Cooper.

In that sense it is fitting.

The entire show wasn't necessarily rehearsed in full, and with an act like Tommy Cooper there would always need to be room to allow him to improvise a bit. Hence there wouldn't have been an immediate awareness that something was wrong when he collapsed, it would have taken time for the gallery to realise that he wasn't doing a spur-of-the-moment gag. And to be blunt, any director worth their salt would want to find a professional way out of the situation. Simply cutting to black would have been an inexperienced panic response; there was a whole network that needed to be cued and a short cue dot followed by the normal end-of-part routine (and doubtless lots of shouting down the talkback) was the best way to do it under the circumstances.

I agree.
The clip, although difficult to watch, should not be censored. However, do think twice before clicking on it.
I had read a lot, and had seen documentaries about his life, but had not seen this footage before.
From a TV presentation point of view, I would have liked to have seen the next part of the show, or if any mention was made over closing credits. I did think they were quite slow in cutting to the break, surely the show would have been rehearsed so the production crew would have know something was wrong. Why not simply cut the feed? Fade to black?

I think the assistant took the lead in laughing it off, leading to the audience assuming it was part of the act, therefore dictating the whole approach by which the production crew dealt with it. If he had collapsed mid sentence, and abruptly fell to the ground clutching his heart, I'm sure the reaction would have been different. But, he had just put the rather large, baggy cloak on, and sort of sank into it. It was perfectly viable that it was part of the act.

The effect you talk about was always very much an LWT thing I think. It was present on a lot of their entertainment productions. The camera or the lighting?

interesting popint at it shows a real heart attack which is completely different to what you see on TV when a character is having one, like Pat on Eastenders on Friday night, seems to me it's played out more in acting than it really is in real life or does it depend on the individual.

but was it not common knowledge that Tommy had a bad back?

The effect you talk about was always very much an LWT thing I think. It was present on a lot of their entertainment productions. The camera or the lighting?

Why should it have been?

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).