Chichester Festival Theatre

Steve Royle steps into the Eric Morecambe shoes as The Last Laugh, a new play by Paul Hendy, heads to Chichester Festival Theatre (Tuesday-Saturday, November 3-7).

The piece imagines three of Britain’s all-time greatest comedy heroes – Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe and Bob Monkhouse – in a dressing room, discussing the secrets of life, death, comedy and what it means to be funny... really funny.

With Damian Williams as Cooper, Simon Cartwright as Monkhouse, Steve and the team are promising something poignant, nostalgic, warm and funny.

“It actually all started as a little film,” Steve says. “Paul wrote the film and it was called The Last Laugh. It was only about 20 minutes long and it was a big success. But during lockdown Paul had the idea of turning it into a play. He left it for a few years and then in 2024 they took it to Edinburgh and it became an overnight success there. Everybody fell in love with it. That's the thing about Edinburgh. Some shows really struggle and others really capture the imagination, and this one did. And then a West End producer saw it and said we have got to take this to the West End. Within six months they were in the West End and then they were off Broadway and touring.”

Steve joined the company after 100 shows. By the time they reach Chichester, the show will have done around 250 and Steve will have done 150.

“The second half is a question and answer. The play is about an hour and 15 or an hour and 20 and that's the first half and then the second half we come back as ourselves and we field questions about the characters. It's talking about what makes things funny and the things that we share together.

“I like to think of it as a play about friendship and also a play about laughter. It's quite a deep analysis of what makes people laugh and why we laugh. And I think it works so well because the comedians are so contrasting. Tommy Cooper just had funny bones. He could do absolutely everything which wasn't always great. Whatever he did seemed to be funny but sometimes he could be very upset and depressed and people would just laugh. Bob Monkhouse was the great wordsmith. For him it's the economy of words. That's what he used to speak about, using the fewest words to get the maximum laugh. And then you've got Eric Morecambe who was a comedian who was very much reliant on the script writers.”

As for Steve's own journey to playing Eric Morecambe: “When I did Britain's Got Talent a few years ago, David Walliams commented on me being like Eric Morecambe. I've always had those mannerisms. I think it was growing up in the 70s and 80s and being a huge fan of Morecambe and Wise. You can't help but absorb some of those mannerisms but actually if you look back at old clips of Sid Fields in the 40s and 50s and you can still find those sketches, they are classic sketches that you watch and you just start thinking of Eric Morecambe. You see how Eric Morecambe was influenced just as I have been influenced.”

As for playing him: “A lot of people think it's about the voice and it's about the mannerisms, and yes, you've got to get those but I think it's more to do with the energy and the comic timing. That's something that develops. It's not just about the slap on the neck and the wobble of the glasses. Do that too much and I think you can start doing a caricature of him. Impressionists tend to exaggerate and do too much of the wobbling of the glasses but when you're actually playing the character you have to look for the little nuances as well.”