David Parkin on an experience that hits all the right notes

JUST like that!

Although, given my new glasses, perhaps I should say “Waay hey!” as Eric Morecambe often exclaimed while waggling them about.

His specs, I mean.

Having been to a performance of the comedy play The Last Laugh in London a few weeks ago the most apt phrase that is associated with Morecambe and Wise that it brought to mind is “Bring Me Sunshine”.

This brilliant production is based on the premise that three of Britain’s greatest comedy heroes, Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe and Bob Monkhouse are all sharing a dressing room before each one’s biggest performance.

Written and directed by former TV presenter Paul Hendy, the play is filled with the trio’s best gags, catchphrases and routines but is much more than just a tribute act to the trio.

Calling it laugh-a-minute is to do it an injustice, I haven’t laughed and smiled that much in years.

The Last Laugh is clearly nostalgic but also deeply poignant and touching as each of the trio look back at their lives and careers and contemplate the final curtain.

In Eric Morecambe and Tommy Cooper’s case the final curtain came down on their lives while they performed on stage.

Tommy collapsed while performing on live TV at Her Majesty’s Theatre in the West End in April 1984 while just six weeks later Eric suffered a heart attack in the wings after a performance at the Roses Theatre in Tewkesbury.

Slick and smooth with a sharp wit and practiced patter, he might not have been as adored by the British public as the other two, but Bob Monkhouse is celebrated as one of Britain’s best stand-up comedians.

Of course I’m a fan of all of them, but it is still incredible that more than 40 years after their deaths, TV shows featuring highlights of Morecambe and Wise and Tommy Cooper still attract big prime time audiences.

Earlier this month two of Cooper’s iconic fezzes were sold at auction for twice their estimated value.

The red felt hats with a black tassel attached to the top were said to have been adopted by Tommy after serving in the army in North Africa.

Cooper gave two of them to a five-year-old boy called Tim Dixon after performing at children’s Christmas party in Grimsby in 1955.

Expected to fetch an estimated £400, they sold for £860 at John Taylor’s Auction Rooms in Louth, Lincolnshire.

Meanwhile a pair of Eric Morecambe’s glasses and a pipe were auctioned in January.

Tipped to fetch between £2,000 and £4,000, they went under the hammer for £20,000.

Singer Robbie Williams later revealed he was the successful bidder, buying them as a treat to celebrate his 51st birthday.

The Stoke-born star said that he cried “happy, childlike tears” after making the winning bid for the imitation tortoiseshell Metzler spectacles and pipe.

Williams, whose semi-autobiographical film Better Man came out last year, said in a post on social media: “I guess we all need friends-we-never-meet from off the telly. Eric has always been mine. An uncle of sorts.

“Eric, you were and are the very best of the very best. That sunshine you asked for, you gave to me.”

The trio of comedy legends are superbly played by Bob Golding as Eric Morecambe, Damian Williams as Tommy Cooper and Simon Cartwright as Bob Monkhouse.

I saw Golding in a one-man show about Eric Morecambe at the City Varieties theatre in Leeds a few years ago and marvelled at how he captured the great man’s wit and warmth.

Williams and Cartwright do equal justice to Cooper and Monkhouse and it isn’t surprising that the show has garnered rave reviews.

The columnist and critic Giles Coren is quoted as describing it as: “The best thing I have ever seen in a theatre.”

Praise indeed.

And I would have to agree.

After a sell-out run in the Noel Coward Theatre in London’s West End, the show will begin a UK tour in June starting off at the Grand Opera House in York on June 10 and then moving on to 10 other towns and cities including Newcastle, Sheffield, Cardiff and Manchester.

I’ll certainly try and see it again.

Of course I’ve heard all the gags before, but this hilarious and touching show certainly provides a feelgood factor in a world that definitely needs more fun.

As Bob Monkhouse said: “Growing old is compulsory, growing up is optional.”

And he nailed it with this line: “Personally, I don't think there's intelligent life on other planets. Why should other planets be any different from this one?”

Have a great weekend.