Tommy Cooper's Daughter Breaks Year Silence On Life With Her Father

Slams ITV drama which portrayed the comedian as a violent alcoholic

The daughter of comedian Tommy Cooper has spoken about her father for the first time in 34 years. Vicky Cooper was also critical about an ITV drama four years ago, which portrayed her father as an alcoholic who was violent towards his wife.

Vicky Cooper (64) who grew up in the family home in Barrowgate Road with her mother Gwen (Dove) and her brother Thomas, was being interviewed for a Channel Five programme, Tommy Cooper: In His Own Words, which looks at the life and times of the legendary comedian.

She said the drama,Not Like That, Like This, broadcast in 2014, in which David Threlfall played Cooper, had inaccurately portrayed her father as violent. She described him as a wonderful family man and said she never witnessed him being violent towards her mother.

The ITV drama focused on Cooper's affair with his assistant Mary, which she admitted was true.

Tommy Cooper's former home in Chiswick

Vicky Cooper said she decided to give her first TV interview following years of abstaining, 'because of the grief'.: 'It all of a sudden came to me - I owe it to his public, for them to know about the real man. And to show my love and respect for him.

'I do still miss him dreadfully, I really do - and for a long time I still have a bit of trouble watching him on television. Because that hole is there.

'I never realised that he was such a genius, because he was my father.' She said he was 'a wonderful family man, he really was'.

The house now has an English Heritage Blue Plaque and was sold about seven years ago to a new family. The owner told of how they found lots of memorabilia in the attic including a box of tricks and old records.

They also said long-time residents of Barrowgate Road often tell them anecdotes about Tommy Cooper from his days in the house. "He was apparently very charming and always doffed his hat and bowed to the ladies when he met them in the street."

Actor David Threlfall as Tommy Cooper with Amanda Redman as Dove (Picture - ITV)

The comedian was a regular at the nearby Hole In The Wall (the Queens Head).

The ITV drama, starring David Threlfall with Amanda Redman as his wife, which was broadcast in 2014, was also partly filmed in the house.

Tommy Cooper lived in Barrowgate Road with wife Gwen - known as Dove - from 1955 until the day he died in 1984 while performing live on TV at Her Majesty's Theatre. He was sixty-three.

Famous for his comedy act as a hapless and incompetent magician, the fez-wearing comedian's catchphrase was "Just Like That!"

Tommy Cooper: In His Own Words charts the fez-wearing comedian's life from his childhood in a Welsh mining town, through his military career and his rise to fame. It was broadcast on Christmas Day on Channel Five and you can watch it on My5 which is the channel's catch up facility.

December 29, 2018