The Statue

 

A larger than life-size bronzed statue of Tommy Cooper has been unveiled in his home town of Caerphilly by self-confessed Cooperholic Sir Anthony Hopkins. The Oscar-winning actor was delighted to accept an invitation from the Welsh town’s Tommy Cooper Society who raised the £45,000 to pay for the statue with help from the Community Key Fund.

 

Sir Anthony unveiled the nine feet high statue of Tommy at a site overlooking Caerphilly’s 13th Century castle – the second largest in Europe – at noon on Saturday 23 February 2008 . Afterwards he attended a private lunch with Society members at the Castle’s Great Hall. Said Sir Anthony: “I am delighted to be unveiling a statue which will commemorate not just one of my heroes, but one of the greatest comics of all time.”

 

Said Tudor Jones, chairman of the Tommy Cooper Society: “Tommy was always larger than life so it is fitting that his statue will stand proud in the centre of the town where he was born. This has been a long awaited tribute to Tommy from his home town of Caerphilly.

 

The statue is the work of locally based sculptor Jim Done who has previously sculpted the statue of boxer Johnnie Owen