Tommy Cooper: Always Leave Them Laughing (20 page)

ABOVE
: Tommy’s parents, Thomas and Gertrude Cooper, circa 1920s.

ABOVE RIGHT
: Three years old and ready for play.

Eighteen years old and ready for the world.

Enjoying a bottle and a glass off duty in Egypt in 1947.

Gwen (far left), star of her wartime concert party.

Tommy and Gwen, just prior to their wedding in Cyprus, 1947.

The early publicity pose that defined an image.

Miff Ferrie: agent, manager, Svengali.

Later publicity pose when success was assured.

Baby Vicky seems unimpressed (above) and with baby Thomas (below) in the garden at Chiswick.

‘Frankie and Bruce
and
Tommy’s
Christmas Show’, 1966.

‘Do you like football?’

‘Bucket, sand! Sand, bucket!’