Glass Chair Chair Glass
This Sunday on Radio 3, Russ Abbot stars in a play that imagines a day when Tommy Cooper met absurdist playwright .
Russ Abbott
Writer Annie Caulfield tells us how this came about...
I remember my parents laughing at Tommy Cooper when I was a kid. I didn鈥檛 like him. I was a grumpy, pedantic sort of child and had to leave the room he made me so cross; 鈥淏ut he鈥檚 not doing those tricks properly. We had a much better magician at the Christmas party, why doesn鈥檛 he do them properly?鈥
This dull streak carried on into being a student. I didn鈥檛 like Ionesco鈥檚 absurd plays; people coming in and out talking nonsense, turning into animals and talking some more nonsense鈥 I liked gritty. Doc Marten wearing plays with lots of political shoutyness.
Maybe I got hit on the head but at some point I realised that I just had to look at Tommy Cooper and laugh. I saw a production of Ionesco鈥檚 Chairs and realised that not only was it funny, life was pretty much like that- people coming in and out talking nonsense, turning into animals and talking some more nonsense.
So when producer Gordon Kennedy told me there was a rumour Tommy Cooper and Eugene Ionesco once met it was like a perfect storm.
When the play was commissioned, director Marilyn Imrie bought me a very nice fez. No one ever picks it up and asks if I鈥檝e been to Turkey 鈥 they start doing a bad Tommy Cooper impression. People who鈥檝e never seen his act recognise Tommy Cooper from the worst possible impressions; that鈥檚 how famous he is.
Tommy Cooper
When Russ Abbot signed up to play Tommy Cooper and I got to pester him for Tommy Cooper anecdotes it felt very strange. If I鈥檇 still been that humourless kid, it would have been like meeting someone who really knew Father Christmas.
Recording the play was difficult because along with Russ there was Alan Cordunner as Ionesco and they became an instant double act; Harriet Walter and Emily Bruni formed another instant comedy act and Hugh Ross had this deadpan delivery 鈥 everyone was making everyone laugh to the point of lying helpless on the floor. This made it hard for them to reach the mikes and hold their scripts.
The kid me would have thought they were all being very silly. This me thinks they were brilliant.
Glass Chair Chair Glass, Sunday 18th September 8.30pm Radio 3
Produced by Gordon Kennedy for
Comment number 1.
At 23rd Sep 2011, John Wilding wrote:I heard a rumour, which I doubt is true, that Russ Abbot had admitted to being Tommy Cooper's illegitimate son.
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