Review - The Last Laugh at Buxton Opera House is a love letter to comedy

The dressing room is the stage and the audience are waiting to see Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe and Bob Monkhouse.

This is not the showmen we have seen on the telly this production shines a light on the people behind the headlines, what makes a joke funny, the long nights away from family while missing the school plays and junior football matches.

This is the vulnerable side of these icons chasing laughter like an addiction.

But this is of course a show with laughter where punchline follows punchline.

Damian Williams, who has been the Sheffield panto dame for the last 18 years, plays Tommy Cooper, alone in the dressing room. He is then joined by Simon Cartwright who takes on Bob Monkhouse and lastly Eric Morecambe played by Britain’s Got Talent finalist Steve Royle.

Tommy gets the show going with a ‘fowl’ joke and peppered throughout the show are the gags and one liners everyone knows and loves.

As Eric says there’s funny, funny funny and funny funny funny and this trio are the latter.

It is a love letter to comedy written and directed by Paul Hendy where the whole show is chiselled and polished.

They are paying tribute to the comedy greats whose legend lives on long after the curtain falls.

Damian and Simon have previously played both Tommy and Bob and there is a comfortableness and ease which comes from their performance and they both work well with newcomer Steve bouncing off each other and finding the laugh.

The show started life as a short film and was turned into a play which wowed the Edinburgh Fringe and became a West End hit. It then did a stint in New York and is now touring the UK and Ireland.

And it’s easy to see why the audiences love it. It's honed by craftsmen with excellent comic timing.

The Last Laugh is here until Saturday August, 29, and this is a must see. It made me laugh and gave me goosebumps.

Tickets are available from buxtonopetahouse.org.uk