GREAT comics come in many guises but they have one thing in common - they all looked like they were making it up as they went along.

None achieved this more than Tommy Cooper, regarded by many as the funniest man ever to walk the earth, and now brought back to life by Jerome Flynn in this new stage show.

Without trying to do a literal impersonation, Flynn, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the comic who died in 1984, captures all of the magic in a performance which has to be seen to be believed.

Monday's first night audience were helpless with laughter. I felt like one of those reviewers who are quoted gleefully in theatre publicity - "I laughed till I cried"... "I laughed till it hurt" etc.

Well, I did, and so did everyone else, partly at the genius of the man himself but also at the breathtaking talent and sheer hard work that went into Flynn's performance, which includes many of Tommy's tricks, performed perfectly, as well as his humour and a few moments of revelation in the first half.

Cooper quotes Spike Milligan as saying "you have one second to get a funny line in - if you're just to the left or right of it, it misses." This doesn't, every second is magic

REVIEW BY STEVE EVANS.