Comedy may have evolved since the hey-day of Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe and Bob Monkhouse but some things will just always be funny.

As soon as the lights came up and Tommy Cooper (Damian Williams) was stood there in his vest and pants and huge foam chicken feet, you had a good sense of where this night was going to go. 

Tommy is soon joined in the pre-show dressing room by comedy companions Bob Monkhouse (Simon Cartwright) and Eric Morecambe (Bob Golding) as they swap jokes, anecdotes, life stories and discuss what it means to be funny and why they do what they do. 

“If a band plays a song everyone has heard before, they get applause, if a comedian tells a joke they’ve heard before… silence,” quipped Morecambe. 

Although even silence can be funny, especially when it involves Cooper, played so brilliantly by Damian Williams; there are times when you only have to look at him to be reduced to fits of giggles.  

Bob Monkhouse is the more considered of the three, analysing every element of his jokes and often looks enviously at the other two, describing them as ‘naturally funny’ and having ‘funny bones’.

There’s a few musical interludes, led by ukelele-playing Eric Morecambe, as well as sketches involving a duck, a mannequin’s leg and a white garden gate. 

All three have played these roles before extensively and it shows.  The different personalities and comedy styles of the characters are interwoven superbly by writer and director Paul Hendy and there are too many laugh-out-loud moments to mention. The voices and mannerisms are so good it could almost be the real thing.

There’s no plot as such, just constant banter between the trio as they build up to what you’re led to believe a show in which they’re all about to perform. But, as you may expect, there’s a twist. 

This show has already been to the West End and Broadway and after performing at the Lyceum will be heading out on a UK tour.

Whatever your memories of the comedians, The Last Laugh proves almost timeless, full of funny moments that are guaranteed to raise a smile, whatever your age. 

The Last Laugh is at the Lyceum from 1-5 July. For ticket info, click here.