"I backed a horse at 20 to one. It came in at half-past four." Even if you don't care for the joke, it's irresistible as told by Tommy Cooper, perhaps the most intrinsically funny man who ever lived. David Threlfall is great as the comedian in this biodrama, with support from Amanda Redman as long-suffering wife Gwen and Helen McCrory as his mistress, Mary. A rather sad account of a man in declining health who spent a lifetime avoiding getting his round in, relieved by rib-tickling recreations of his stage act.

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.

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"It's about his double life - the stress, boozing and the hard work - all of which ultimately killed him"

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.

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What this script successfully did was show just how fitting it was that Tommy's final hurrah was on stage, making everyone laugh as the be-fezzed fool that was so beloved, and not off it where life had become far more complicated, and ultimately unsolvable.

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