A look back at... The Savages

The Savages was a family life based sitcom starring Marcus Brigstocke that after airing back in 2001, disappeared seemingly without a trace. But it was a great showcase for Marcus Brigstocke and a show that, in my opinion, is worth remembering.

Simon Nye on Up Pompeii!

Frankie Howerd's Roman sitcom was never cool, but the influence of its fourth-wall breaking and corpsing lives on, argues Simon Nye.

Football-based comedies have come and gone unmourned over the years but, despite the distractingly Elton John-like appearance of hero Warren and a general "British Family Guy" air, the pedigree of the scriptwriters and actors - from Simon Nye to Morwenna Banks - ensures this one is eminently watchable. Tonight, manic Brainsford United obsessive Warren unwisely persuades his reluctant wife and child to paint their faces for a big cup tie. There's a big cheerleader initiative, too, but all comes to grief before half-time.

The Tommy Cooper thing, Not Like That, Like This, winningly scripted by Simon Nye, told the tale of guess who? A grand piece of ever-rewatchable television, for whom most plaudits will so rightly go to David Threlfall, who simply channelled Cooper: he made you practically smell Chiswick in the 60s, and the BBC lino, and twitch along with every bursting blood-vessel in first his nose and later heart. But very honourable mentions go to Amanda Redman and the ever-splendid Gregor Fisher, playing so against type as to surely require near-physical contortions. And to Paul Ritter, who played Eric Sykes, and got the wisest line of the night, after Cooper drunkenly explained the difference between his two loves, comedy and magic. Sykes saw a different version of two loves, Cooper being at that stage torn between wife Dove and mistress Mary. "So Dove is your comedy, and Mary is your magic." A difficult, heartbreaking man, and ditto piece of television.

Football has all the big comedy themes

When does a hobby stop being a hobby and become a sickness? Why are men more prone to mono-mania than women?

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.

Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This review

Simon Nye's script didn't shy away from the darker elements of Cooper's personality but it was balanced nicely with his incessant need to perform.