Tommy Cooper at Swinscoe

There is a story of a depressed man in the early years of the last century who went to see the eminent psychiatrist Sigmund Freud at his practice in Vienna. On hearing the troubled man’s account Freud attempted to shake off man’s lethargy by  suggesting that he see the famous comedian Grock who was in town. “But I am Grock” the man replied. The story might be fanciful,but I saw it mentioned again after the suicide of Robin Williams  illustrating the struggle that many comics seem to have with their inner demons which can overwhelm them.

I am a fan of the great British comedian Tommy Cooper. I sometimes use his joke at work about whisky. “I’m on a whisky only diet- I’ve lost 3 days'”. I noticed a picture of Cooper taken when he performed at the “Dog and Partridge” at Swinscoe on April Fool’s day 1965. In the picture he is performing some trick before an admiring chef. Cooper, along with Morecambe and Wise and Les Dawson, must be considered Britain’s most loved comedian. Who can forget the manic laughter, the wonderfully gormless face , the look of  bewilderment, and the fez perched on top of a 6foot 4 inch frame. The fez, I gather, was acquired during Cooper’s military service in the Middle East in the Second World War.

 His ability to appear comic without doing anything was legendary. He  had a great presence as well as a brilliant sense of timing . I was  talking recently  to a man who said that he saw Cooper at Leeds and  Cooper  just stood on stage not saying anything for several  minutes while the audience convulsed with laughter. Then there were the dubious tricks.  He is supposed to have developed an interest  in magic after  a relative gave him a box of conjuring tricks when he was young.  Was he  a  dreadful magician with occasional displays of brilliance or – and this is more likely – a brilliant magician who could appear terrible in performing tricks?

  I had heard of some unfortunate aspects of his character such as the alcohol problem and his affairs. Someone I knew saw him very drunk in a shop in Bournemouth once. He also had a reputation as being the meanest man in show business. A TV program  earlier this year, broadcast on the 30^th anniversary of his death portrayed a drunken bully who abused his wife. Members of his family have since  come to his defence believing the play was very unfair, misrepresenting a man who was devoted to his children and his wife. Whatever the truth I pose the question of whether knowing that a great comedian behaves appallingly undermines his appeal? Tony Hancock was a comic genius, but had his flaws as did Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Frankie Howerd and Kenneth Williams. I feel  a great comic talent off sets any inadequacies that the individual had. This is best illustrated by an incident that happened to a friend of mine who saw Ken Dodd at a pantomime in the late 80s. Dodd had been acquitted on a tax fraud case and was also a fervent supporter of Mrs Thatcher. This was enough to turn my friend against Dodd, but the brilliance of the comedian ‘s act melted opposition . As for Cooper it says something for his immortality that wearing a fez and a gesture with the hands and the phrase “ just like that” can still 30 years after his death prompt laughter

Do you remember Feb 1976?

 Although it was the month of St Valentine, there was little sign of love between Tom Walker, the Regional Officer of the Building Workers union UCATT and the head teacher of Waterhouse High School Brian Nicholson. The saga began when Mr Nicholson contacted the Army as he was involved in developing the railway line at Rudyard and thought that he would use some of the pupils to help re-open the line which has since become a very popular tourism attraction. He contacted the Army, as their expertise was required to clear the area of accumulated rubble. They wrote back to Mr Nicholson informing him that he needed the approval of the relevant trade union before the work could be carried out. The Head teacher wrote and Mr Walker promptly turned him down in acerbic terms “ No doubt the Council would like the Army to complete the D road or build hospitals”. Mr Walker pointed out that there were 200,000 unemployed building workers who needed jobs. The Post and Times produced a front-page editorial attacking Walker. National newspapers then joined in reporting what they perceived as another example of union bullying. Walker was rightly outraged that private correspondence had been leaked to the media and concluded another letter to Nicholson with a furious outburst subsequently reported “ your childish ignorance disgusts me”. It’s probable that there was no exchange of cards between the parties on 14th February.

 Valentine’s Day fell on a Saturday in 1976 and there was an opportunity for lovers to hasten to the Countryman club at Newtown near Longnor to see Pete Conway serenade the audience. Pete is the father of Robbie Williams who would have been exactly 2 in February 1976. North Staffs in the 70s was an excellent place to see top entertainers. Gloria Gaynor- the Queen of Soul was at Baileys in Hanley following the Fatback Band- the Spanish Hustle was a UK top ten hit in 1976 the previous week. And the Post and Times advertised that Ken Dodd was coming with his Laughter Show to the Grand in early March. No doubt the bleary-eyed audience met the local milkmen on the way home the following morning

 The year was an Olympic year the Montreal Olympics started in the summer. The Leek Athletics Club was set up on a snowy February day at Westwood High School, the international runner Roy Fowler was present to put 50 runners through their paces including Mayor Josie Heath. The establishment of the club was enthusiastically received and amongst the hopefuls was 14 year old Andrew Wilton from Longnor a junior cross-country runner. Amongst the first decisions made by the club was to select the clubs colours of green and white and fix up weekly training sessions. Kit could be obtained from Bourne's Sports which had a full page advert in the paper detailing some of the bargains that could be obtained such as a Wilson Brinylon track suit at £6 or training shoes at £3.50 O the joys of wearing brinylon for sport! . The special designed Nike running shoes were still some years off.

 It was a memorable time for 13 year old Julia Poyser of Hillswood Avenue, Leek who had won a competition to see a rehearsal of “Blue Peter” in London which starred John Noakes- not forgetting Shep- Lesley Judd and Peter Purves. The programme, which had been going since 1958, had a regular audience of 7 million in the 70s. Julia won a Blue Peter annual- there is no record of a badge in the newspaper report.

 One of the iconic films of the 1970s was on show for one night only at the Grand” Badlands” with a very young Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. The 70s, in my opinion,  was one of the great decades of cinema