Tommy Cooper is one of the legends of British comedy, yet somehow actor Jerome Flynn has managed to fill the comic's giant shoes in the stage tribute Jus' Like That, which tours to Newcastle this week. He talks to Viv Hardwick.

YOU can never tire of Tommy Cooper, but actor Jerome Flynn admits he'll be glad to hang up the famous red fez after nearly a year on stage as one of Britain's favourite funnymen.

This week he's in Newcastle at the revitalised Tyne Theatre for a week with West End hit show Jus' Like That and is busy arranging for a reunion at the venue with old mate Robson Green and his family.

The two turned ITV drama Soldier, Soldier into a chart-topping singing act before Geordie Green started landing a series of TV roles in the south while southerner Flynn started playing a Geordie wildlife policeman in North-East BBC1 drama Badger.

London-based Flynn recalls that, when the two worked together, both were fans of the giant magician, who tragically died on stage during a televised performance in 1984.

He says: "Newcastle is a special place to me so I'm really glad we managed to find a date. Of all the places I wanted to play on the tour, Newcastle was top of the list.

"I've got a sister who lives in Northumberland and I spent a lot of time up there with Rob. He says he's going to bring his family along and I'm phoning him to arrange the night.

"We used to keep each other entertained while we were filming by dropping into Tommy Cooper gags. It would keep the hours ticking by and we even tried to get Tommy into the script."

Flynn spent hours in rehearsal to earn rave reviews as he captured the magic and mirth of his subject. "The man was so warmly loved by the British public, once the audience accept me and I've got a couple of laughs that love comes off them, the show becomes a joy," he says.

Physically there are similarities in the Flynn-Cooper jawline, but the comic was 6ft 4inches with huge hands while Flynn is a six-footer.

He says: "People say when I'm playing him there's a resemblance. It's a dream job because I'm doing all my favourite gags and tricks in two hours so it's like a purge really. Tommy is a mysterious passion that people have, and not just masculine, a lot of woman loved him. Quite a lot come along who have fathers or husbands who were obsessed about Tommy and they come to try and understand, so it's quite cathartic for them.

"He's easily the most enjoyable and satisfying role I've ever done. I think the reason I became an actor was for that live, spontaneous relationship you get from an audience, which first happened when I was about 15. Tommy is the epitome of that 'anything can happen' spirit. So for all those things, the fact that I love him and he's a hero of mine means it can't get much better for me.

"Tommy and Eric Morecambe were part of my childhood and in my cells. I didn't have links with him apart from the fact that I left acting college during the year he died but I've had an affinity with him since then which I can't explain. When I started doing him it kind of set the clown in me free. I think that's very general in a lot of people and there's something about the way that Tommy looks at life that releases the child in all of us."

Cooper was undoubtedly one of showbiz's great perspirers and Flynn admits that during his first summer as the comic "I perspired a lot but I've got a lot fitter as I've gone along. When I first started I was dripping, but his was due to alcohol, which I try to avoid."

He got to meet Tommy's beloved wife Gwen, nicknamed Dove, just two weeks before she died in 2002, because she'd agreed to allow the tribute, penned by John Fisher and directed by Simon Callow, to go ahead.

She clapped eyes on an anxious-looking Flynn and said "he'll do".

"She saw something in me, I don't know what it was and quite how to take it, but the fact she was happy meant a lot and that was wonderful."

Flynn insists at the end of the current tour in April he wants to let go of the impersonation for a while, despite being approached to play Tommy Cooper in another project.

He jokes: "To be honest, the longer I wait to play Tommy again, the better I'll look. Then I'll see what comes. I've got a film script which I've got to see if I can write, but as far as acting is concerned, it's an open book."

The two years out Flynn took in the 1990s, at the height of his fame, to "find himself" with the organisation FACE (Friends Of Andrew Cohen Everywhere) - which has been dismissed as a cult - continues to fascinate people, but has it damaged his career in any way?

"The tabloid newspapers have tried to make something sinister out of this. But if somebody wants to ask me I'll tell them why it was important to me and is still important to me. It's the self same journey that people have been on for millennia.

"We tend to get trapped in our insular lives and we're part of something bigger and I knew I was missing out on a large part of who I was.

"I can't remember what I used to be like before, but hopefully the work I've done makes me easier to be with, less friction. I wasn't an angry person but I was probably more selfish. Some people couldn't understand why I would want to stop working when everything was going so well, but success isn't everything."

* Jus' Like That runs until Saturday at the Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. Box Office: 0870 145 1200.