Morecambe, Cooper and Monkhouse have The Last Laugh in Edinburgh

Writer-director Paul Hendy brings back three comedians through performers Bob Golding, Damian Williams and Simon Cartwright. Every year, the Edinburgh Fringe programme features solo performances about real people, which in the past have included Bob Golding as Eric Morecambe in Tim Whitnall’s Morecambe from 2009, Damian Williams as Tommy Cooper in Being Tommy Cooper by Tom Green from 2012 and Simon Cartwright as Bob Monkhouse in The Man Called Monkhouse by Alex Lowe from 2015. Writer-director Paul Hendy brought these three performers together for a film short called The Last Laugh in 2017, which he has now extended for a stage production featuring the same cast. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke with the four of them about the play, what drove these great comics—and some of their demons—and why they have returned to playing them so many times. The Last Laugh will be in Studio One at Assembly George Square Studios, Edinburgh at 1:20PM every day except Monday 12 August from 31 July to 25 August 2024. For more information and tickets, go to Edfringe.com or Assembly Festival and search for “The Last Laugh”.