Don Quixote review

Don Quixote is a production that manages to immerse the audience in more ways than one, it's an uproariously funny and satisfyingly entertaining production, which is sure to entice audiences back again, as it already has done with its terrific lead cast.

Although most of Victoria Wood's work since 1985 had been for the BBC - including her sketch series As Seen on TV and the sitcom dinnerladies - she fell out with the corporation in 2009 when her seasonal specal, All the Trimmings, commissioned for Christmas Day, was dumped in a lesser slot without consultation.

Possibly because of this, only ITV was able to gain access to the writer-comedian's closest colleagues - including Julie Walters, Duncan Preston and Celia Imrie - for Let's Do It: A Tribute to Victoria Wood. There was also a suspicion that, in relation, the BBC might have been mean about releasing clips: there was so little material from dinnerladies and As Seen on TV that the opening titles had to be used as illustration.

Despite smart use of DVDs of stage shows and clps from a 1996 South Bank Show, the talking heads between the extracts adopted the now standard TV obit-show tone of rave about the person in the grave. James Corden explained that "she just made a lot of people laugh". Sir Lenny Henry averred that "she was just brilliant", while Jim Broadbent siad: "You just think, God, what a special person!'"

Attention was rightly paid to Wood's epic comic song, The Ballard of Barry and Freda. But, rather than reference to its double internal rhymes or climactic triple rhymes or the comic effect of domestic detail (lagging, grouting, flameproof nightie), we got a string of celebs calling the song "brilliant" and David Threlfall[/o] declaring: "Is there no end to this woman's talent?" Well, sadly, Dave, yes, there was, which is why an ITV crew is in your dressing room.

There has been an increasing preponderance in recent years of gloomy biographical dramas about great British comedians, playing down celebrations of their craft in favour of miserable, booze-soaked backstories. Certainly this feature-length effort, with Shameless star David Threlfall playing the eponymous comedian, had its share of bleakness - infidelity, alcoholism and, ultimately, Cooper's sudden, onstage death. However, it also made pains to show the comic at his best, delivering one-liners on and offstage with the unfussy brilliance of a man who, rather than being tortured by his art, found comedy laughably easy. Threlfall puts in a stunningly precise performance as Cooper, in a role that will surely go some way to helping him shed the career shadow of Frank Gallagher.

Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This review

David Threlfall should walk off with this year's best actor Bafta after a pitch-perfect portrayal of the much-loved comedian, supported by a phalanx of perfectly turned supporting roles.

Tommy Cooper: the best quotes

Last night David Threlfall turned in an award-worthy performance as Tommy Cooper in the ITV biopic Not Like That, Like This. Here, we celebrate the fez-wearing comic conjuror's finest lines...

If all footage of Tommy Cooper's performances was destroyed and future generations were left with just this drama to try to work out the reason for his popularity, they would be completely stumped.

A heavy drinker, tight-fisted, physically abusive and (on the evidence here at least) not even especially funny, Cooper is an unlikely candidate for national treasure status.

Shameless star David Threlfall delivers an extraordinary performance as the comedian, recreating his act and his patter to an uncanny extent.

But Simon Nye's script, based on John Fisher's 2006 biography, zeroes in on the scandal in his personal life, and his 17-year affair with assistant Mary Kay (Helen McCrory).

Kay first joined Cooper on tour in the 1960s when his wife Gwen, ­nicknamed Dove (Amanda Redman), opted to stay at home with their children.

Cooper never told Dove he'd hired a replacement, and it would take a much more naïve person than me to think a middle-aged male comedian could travel the country with just his attractive female assistant for company and NOT end up having an affair with them.

By the time of Cooper's death on stage on 1984, you've gone right off him. Threlfall, on the other hand, is absolutely tremendous.

Radio Times review

David Threlfall delivers a tour de force as Tommy Cooper, undergoing a transformation that's much deeper than just the donning of a fez.

Cooper's studied incompetence with magic tricks made him a star, but Simon Nye's script centres on Cooper's relationships with two women, his volatile and long-suffering wife Dove (Amanda Redman) and his mistress Mary Kay (Helen McCrory).

Cooper is hard to like - he drinks too much, he's tight with money and he's physically abusive - and by the end of two hours your patience may have run dry.

But Threlfall and Nye work hard to show why Cooper inspired abiding loyalty in both women, and in his friends and fellow comedians, right until that final show when he collapses on stage in front of a TV audience, an extraordinary 15 minutes from Threlfall who does the act note for note.

David Threlfall excels in this well-written biopic

I thoroughly enjoyed Not Like That, Like This from its engaging opening scene to its heartbreaking conclusion.

Not Like That, Like This - 'a so-so biopic'

David Threlfall's portrayal of comedian Tommy Cooper saved a mediocre biopic.