The title characters of Garry Lyons' angry play are not lovers but true-life haters. Lyons' own father Frankie, a would-be comedian, became side-kick to the ruthlessly ambitious Tommy Cooper in an ill-starred double act which effectively scuppered Lyons' professional career as a comic actor. The two first met In Egypt in 1946 while waiting for demob, working with Combined Services entertainment (not ENSA as in this production). They formed an unlikely stage act in which, according to Lyons, Tommy relentlessly pushed himself forward, humiliated the little guy and eventually broke his spirit. After Frankie's return to Kingston, he continued to work in the amateur field, while Tommy reached the heights of fame before his death on camera n 1984, re-enacted here to awkward laughter.

The play seems an attempt to right old wrongs as Frankie, the likeable narrator, wins applause with bruising knockabout routines. But as in life, the centre ground is annexed by the more talented Tommy whose genius for winning laughter is brilliantly tapped by Cooper look-alike Christopher Brand, the third actor to play the role since it was first seen in Edinburgh In 1992.

This London premiere is based by Laurie Sansom on Peter Rowe’s acclaimed Liverpool Everyman and Watford productions, each starring Ben Fox as Frankie who, like his character, keeps coming back for more. At close quarters in this venue, Tommy's cruelty and Frankie’s passive anger become unbearably real. But as a piece of entertainment Brand’s brilliant restoration of the Cooper comedy conjuring routines is unmissable. And one can only admire Fox’s readiness to take terrifying pratfalls and come up smiling.